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The Hershey Company

Member since: September 2014 Commodities: Palm oil

The Hershey Company

Member since: September 2014

Commodities: Palm oil

Intro

The Hershey Company is the largest producer of chocolate in North America. Hershey markets, sells and distributes their products under more than 100 brand names in approximately 80 countries.

Earthworm Foundation helps Hershey implement its Responsible Palm Oil Sourcing Policy, which commits the company to sourcing 100% traceable and sustainable palm oil products within its supply chains. Earthworm Foundation supports Hershey to conduct traceability exercises with their palm oil suppliers to understand the universe of potential mills and plantations where the palm they source could have been produced. Hershey supports several transformation initiatives to drive better environmental and social practices on the ground, including Earthworm landscape projects in Peninsular Malaysia and Aceh, Indonesia.

News & Media

Sep 24, 2014

Hershey becomes TFT palm oil member

Key Milestones

Key impacts

In 2021, Hershey’s support as an Associate Funder of the Aceh Landscape programme contributed to protecting 8,060 ha of forest outside of concessions, training 589 farmers in Best Management Practices, improving working conditions for over 500 workers and advancing progress on land tenure rights in two communities
Hershey suppliers continue to improve their implementation of their NDPE policies. Hershey assesses progress through Earthworm’s Engagement for Policy Implementation (EPI) program and actively engage suppliers based on the results to support continuous improvement
As of June 2021, Hershey's direct suppliers report achieving nearly 100% traceability to the mill-level and 79% to the plantation-level for its palm oil supply chain, providing it with an understanding of the mills and plantations where the palm oil they source could have been produced

Palm oil

Palm oil is a highly versatile and inexpensive vegetable oil – we eat it, put it on our bodies and can burn it for fuel. This has made it a major driver of economic growth in many countries, but can also lead to many issues such as loss of tropical forest habitats, which contain more than half of the Earth’s plants and animal species.

Through its partnership with Earthworm Foundation, Hershey maintains high levels of traceability and provides direct support to transformation efforts in its supply. Additionally, Earthworm supports Hershey’s supplier engagement regarding policy implementation and grievance response, investigating cases where suppliers’ actions may have failed to live up to Hershey’s Responsible Palm Oil Sourcing Policy.

Hershey has established a target for a 100% verified deforestation free palm oil supply chain by 2025. It utilizes Earthworm’s Starling spatial monitoring service to proactively detect cases of deforestation in its palm supply chain and, with support from Earthworm, engages suppliers to address non-compliances. In addition, Hershey is collaborating with other Earthworm members to utilize Forest Footprint data to identify potential opportunities to conserve standing forest.

Hershey also contributes directly to collaborative transformation work in Indonesia and Malaysia to further support companies in its supply chain to meet Hershey’s policy as well as make substantive progress towards industry wide improvements.