Mars Incorporated teams up with Social Value Portal to measure sustainability impact

An innovative venture from Mars Incorporated has seen the business team up in the UK with Social Value Portal to measure its impact on consumers, wider communities and sustainability initiatives, writes Neill Barston.

The company explained that it is encouraging the broader sector to become involved in the initiative to provide an enhanced overview of how industry can influence positive change with its manufacturing operations.

As Mars noted, the Social Value scheme offers a  holistic measure of social, environmental and economic value; it is the value an organisation contributes to society beyond a reported profit. Where profit is measured in standard accounting terms, Social Value is measured by actions.

The move is anticipated to assist Mars Incorporated to evaluate its performance in Britain, with methodology calculating a net financial figure that represents the contribution of Mars’ economic and employment footprint, investments in sustainability, and charitable/CSR activity.

Significantly, the company’s efforts in the sector are thought be the first to adopt the TOM System of Social Value measurement, which is unique to Social Value Portal and endorsed by the Local Government Association. It promotes transparency and accountability, and enables organisations to measure and track impacts across multiple areas.

Adam Grant, General Manager at Mars Wrigley UK, said: “Understanding our Social Value delivery will be a powerful vehicle for demonstrating our commitment to putting our purpose into practice with our different audiences. We are committed to supporting our suppliers, employees, customers and consumers, and now we want to take this further. We want to measure the value and impact of this work, boost our Social Value in the UK and set the standard for our industry.

“This is a major milestone in our journey, and our first step is to build a picture of where we are by recording and reporting so we can benchmark and set targets for the future.”

Mars Incorporated is now calling on the FMCG industry in the UK to join them on their Social Value journey. Together with Social Value Portal, Mars is developing a toolkit to help other consumer-facing companies get started.

Adam added: “As the societal expectation for businesses to demonstrate greater accountability and transparency grows, being open and honest about our broader impact is an imperative. By encouraging other businesses to join us on our journey, we can create a community in our industry that supports one another whilst enabling us to benchmark against other like-minded businesses.”

Guy Battle, CEO, Social Value Portal added: “We are honoured to be working with Mars Incorporated to guide them on the Social Value journey – especially as this is one of the first organisations in the FMCG sector to make a formal commitment to delivering Social Value.

“Behind every number, there is a life; a person, a family and a community that stands to benefit from Social Value so we are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for this highly respected organisation.”

Mars Wrigley has also been asked to join the National Social Value Taskforce, which has representatives from across the public, private and third sectors. Lorraine Cox, Chair of the National Social Value Taskforce, commented: “We need more private sector organisations to integrate Social Value into their core business strategies and through radical collaboration to support the delivery of the Social Value Economy.”