The Hershey Company is a leading North American manufacturer of chocolate and non-chocolate confectioneries that sells products in approximately 80 countries, including China, Brazil, Mexico and India.
The Hershey Company and Earthworm Foundation work together on implementing The Hershey Company's Responsible Palm Oil Sourcing Policy, which commits them to sourcing 100 percent traceable and sustainable palm oil products within their supply chains. Earthworm Foundation works with The Hershey Company to go beyond certification, tracing its palm oil back to mill and plantation. The Hershey Company supports several of Earthworm’s transformation initiatives to drive better environmental and social practices on the ground, including the Indonesia Landscape Initiative and Support for Transformation (SFT).
In 2014, Earthworm worked with The Hershey Company to help develop its rigorous Responsible Palm Oil Sourcing Policy.
The Hershey Company pledged No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation in its palm oil supply chain.
In late 2016, The Hershey Company partnered with a palm oil refiner company to support a training workshop on sustainable palm oil practices for their supplying mills in the area.
In 2017 and 2018, The Hershey Company increased its support of transformation programs by contributing to the Indonesia Landscape Initiative and Support for Transformation (SFT) mill trainings. Hershey also began publicly reporting the list of mills in its palm oil supply chain from 2017 onwards.
Through its partnership with Earthworm Foundation, The Hershey Company maintains high levels of traceability and provides direct support to transformation efforts in its supply. Additionally, Earthworm facilitates Hershey’s supplier engagement regarding policy development and grievance response, tailored to the areas in which each supplier has room to improve. Since 2017, Hershey has worked closely with Earthworm in investigating cases where suppliers’ actions failed to live up to Hershey’s Responsible Palm Oil Sourcing Policy. In cases where swift remediate was not likely, The Hershey Company, in consultation with Earthworm, removed multiple suppliers from its Palm Oil Supply Chain.
The Hershey Company also contributes directly to collaborative transformation work in Indonesia to further support companies in its supply chain, both to meet Hershey’s policy as well as make substantive progress towards industry wide improvements.
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