Understanding our Impacts
Social Impacts
As a global business, we can make real and lasting differences in many people’s lives. Our social impacts are too numerous and complex to list fully. Some are a direct result of our actions, while others are the indirect outcome of our environmental impacts or the use of our products. The areas where we have made a social impact include:
Follow the links to each section to read more about our actions in each area.
Mars, Incorporated position on child labor
Child labor and trafficking are serious challenges facing many supply chains that originate in developing countries, particularly for the entire cocoa industry, and most profoundly in West Africa. Mars has worked for years to address these challenges, both on its own, and through cooperative efforts with governments, nongovernmental organizations and industry. We share the widely held view that child labor is grounded in complex economic, political, and social issues and that our approach to addressing them must be similarly diverse and comprehensive. Ultimately, our business depends on farmers and communities that benefit from and see a positive future in cocoa production and the worst forms of child labor have no place in this future.
Working in partnership
Mars is a signatory to the Harkin-Engel Protocol and has worked with various coalitions including the World Cocoa Foundation and the International Cocoa Initiative to both combat the worst forms of child labor and invest in more sustainable communities. We are also partnering with the U.S. Department of Labor, the International Labour Organization and producing-country governments to better understand the complexities behind the issue – including awareness and attitudes towards child labor locally and identifying more effective strategies to combat trafficking – to determine how we might more productively collaborate to achieve a greater impact.
Mars will continue to build broad partnerships to address this issue, but ultimately, making progress in eradicating the use of the worst forms of child labor in cocoa production requires the support, cooperation and commitment of governments of cocoa producing countries, cocoa farmers and others from within the cocoa community. Essential to this commitment is the recognition that responsible and sustainable cocoa production is critical to improving the lives of cocoa farming families and their communities.
Mars' actions
Mars is also working independently to invest in many of the communities where we source our products, including through our Vision for Change initiative in Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, in 2009 Mars became the first global chocolate company to commit to sourcing only cocoa that is certified as being produced in a sustainable manner by 2020. As a part of this commitment, we are working with our certification partners to ensure that the cocoa we buy is produced in a way that adheres to international labor guidelines and provides economic opportunity to growers. Political instability within Côte d’Ivoire in 2010 and early 2011 delayed progress on this initiative, but we have now re-engaged with our partners in the country and are woring to drive this important initiative forward.
The worst forms of child labor
Most cocoa farms are run by families, and children usually help their relatives with regular chores on these farms. The situation in which children work alongside their parents or guardians in agriculture is a part of many cultures; but when children perform dangerous tasks or are forced to work, it is considered one of the "worst forms of child labor" that are unacceptable. For more information, see www.cocoainitiative.org/en/about-us.
Measuring Our Social Impacts
Social impacts are complex and often subjective. They rarely have a single cause or agreed definition, are often linked and cannot be tackled in isolation or by a single organization. The same issue can have many different outcomes. 
For example, low literacy levels can prevent farmers from managing their businesses and increasing their incomes, and they can keep consumers from maintaining healthy, balanced diets. In addition, cultural norms and expectations differ widely around the world and shift as attitudes change. These complexities make it extremely difficult to quantify our impacts or agree to a standardized approach; there is rarely a clear input or output to measure.
Nevertheless, we are working hard to identify and quantify social impacts throughout our business so we can ensure our efforts are driving meaningful change and are focused on the most important areas.
Developing Effective Approaches
Regardless of the complexities involved, we are committed to ensuring that everyone who deals with Mars, directly or indirectly, benefits from their relationship with us. We seek to create lasting, mutual benefits for all those involved in our business success by creating positive social impacts, minimizing our environmental impacts and creating economic value. Without integrating all these aspects into our business, our company will not endure in the long term.
We want to leverage our stakeholders' collective skills to ensure we continue to offer quality products, help people improve their well-being and reduce our combined environmental impacts.
We strive to demonstrate our respect for human rights throughout our value chain. In addition to our Five Principles which guide our choices, we recognize the principles of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
We aim to develop robust approaches for social impacts across our value chain. We have well-developed programs in some areas, such as Associate well-being and health and nutrition. We have also begun to address the social impacts of sourcing some raw materials, such as cocoa, tea and coffee. But, we have not yet done so for all our ingredients.
We have created internal advisory groups to strengthen our approaches to human rights and the social impacts of obtaining raw materials, such as cocoa and palm oil. We work with others to ensure the approaches we develop can be broadly applied to create greater positive change, not just within Mars.
