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Each ingredient presents unique sourcing challenges and risks since environmental, social and labor practices vary across commodities and by region. By understanding the risks that are specific to each raw material and region, we can better use our scale and resources to safeguard human rights and protect the people and ecosystems behind the ingredients that make up our iconic, delicious snacks.

While every ingredient is important, Hershey focuses on—and has specific strategies and commitments—for the following priority ingredients: cocoa, dairy, sugar, palm oil, as well as pulp and paper. We also have commitments to sourcing 100 percent certified coconut and cage-free eggs.

Our approach

Hershey partnered with human rights NGO Verité to develop a heatmap to analyze risk as defined by our salient and material issues across our key value chains and geographic footprint. (Read more about that work here and on our Human Rights webpage.) We reviewed the scope of our current responsible sourcing commitments against the risks identified by the heatmap and defined our priority ingredients and raw materials based on sustainability and business risks and our ability to deliver positive impact.

How we manage priority ingredients and raw materials

Our responsible sourcing commitments for our priority ingredients account for the specific sustainability challenges faced in the communities and ecosystems where they are sourced. In addition to working with suppliers and farmers to address these issues, we implement a variety of tools and approaches, including:

  • Certification
  • Traceability
  • Origin-level investments focused on environmental, social and economic issues
  • Industry engagement that enables more impactful change as no one company can solve these big sustainability challenges alone