Leading a business that manufactures spices and extracts, McCormick & Company's Chairman and CEO Lawrence Kurzius follows climate change closely. To ensure the raw materials used in their products are available 20+ years from now, McCormick has invested in their smallholder farms and farmers around the world, providing them with access to agricultural science and technology to improve productivity and livelihoods.
In episode nine of the For the Greater Good podcast, Kurzius speaks with Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) CEO John Ross about how doing the right thing for humanity and the environment intersect with good business decisions.
Key Takeaways:
- "McCormick has ended up—by accident—having an entrepreneur as a CEO," Kurzius says. "I hope I have brought my entrepreneurs eyes to the business. I think about that all the time: how I can keep a fresh perspective, bring fresh thinking and fresh energy and think like an owner within this company to make it the best that it can be."
- As a member of the Consumer Goods Forum, Kurzius and McCormick participate in the Collaboration for Healthier Lives and the Human Rights Coalition.
- "The commitment to environment and commitment to a good society isn't political. It matters tremendously," Kurzius says about McCormick's Purpose-led Performance Program.
- Many of McCormick's ingredients are grown near the Equator throughout the world. To protect those raw materials from climate change and ensure the ingredients will still be available in 20+ years, the company has brought agricultural science and technology to these communities to improve productivity. That practice has also improved water and soil use and farmer livelihoods.
- The company aims to increase the resilience of 90% of smallholder farmers that grow their key herbs and spices, which they measure by increasing skills and capacity, income, access to financial services, education, and nutrition and health.
- McCormick's U.S. manufacturing facilities and distribution center are now 100% solar powered.
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