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Sustainable in a generation

Belgium’s complicated political structures keep the country’s climate action ambition low. Mars, a US corporation, is showing the way forward with 100% renewable energy and greener transport

Belgium is getting a lesson in sustainability from Mars, a giant confectionary-making corporation headquartered in the US. Mars Belgium uses 100% renewable energy and is now greening its transport operations. In contrast the country’s government lags behind in achieving its far less ambitious green energy goals for Belgium as a whole

A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play.” It was a slogan that resonated among generations of chocolate bar eaters. More recently the global confectionary maker has added a new and more urgent edge to its marketing speak. In 2017, Mars launched a science-based sustainable in a generation” plan based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It pledged to invest almost $1 billion to tackle urgent threats” to the world, including climate change, and to put renewables and energy efficiency at the heart of its operations and its entire supply chain. Kathy Heungens from Mars Belgium, says: Mars has the impact of a small country and this brings responsibilities.” The company, which also makes other food products including for pets, already uses 100% renewable electricity to power its operations in the US, the UK and other European countries. Australia and Mexico are next in line. The aim is to remove direct greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 2040 and to reduce emissions across its value chain by 67% by 2050. As well as going all renewable for its electricity, Mars Belgium is also greening its transport. It wants to lead by example rather than wait for legislation to bring about change. Passing any kind of legislation in Belgium takes time given the country’s complicated legislative structure, as the Climate Policy Observatory, run by the Italian think-tank ICCG, underlines. Divided into three regions, Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels-Capital, the country’s climate legislation is characterised by a strong regional influence. Political fragmentation and lack of clarity in the division of competences and responsibilities between the federal and the regional governments” cause inconsistencies in national climate legislation, says the observatory. NGOs have frequently called out the government on its apparent reluctance to fully embrace the clean energy transition, in particular in terms of transport. In a ranking of climate action in Europe by Climate Action Network (CAN) in June 2018, Belgium is sixteenth. The NGO says the country is likely to miss its 2020 emissions reduction and renewable energy targets, highlighting that its emissions have been rising since 2014, mainly in the transport and buildings sectors. CAN Europe calls on Belgium to put forward a clear vision on how to move towards a zero carbon society by 2050 at the latest”. It is time for the country to up its game on renewable energy and energy efficiency”, says CAN. Belgium’s goal is to reduce emissions to 15% below 2005 levels and for renewables to make up 13% of gross final energy consumption by 2020. In 2016, however, renewables only represented 8.7% of gross final energy consumption, while the country’s emissions increased by 2.9% from 2014 to 2015 and by 0.7% the following year. Emissions from the transport sector make up 22% of the country’s total emissions, compared with 14.3% in 1990.

Learning process

Mars, which operates from two sites in Belgium, employing more than 400 people, has decided to take matters into its own hands. In addition to powering its factories and offices on 100% renewable electricity, it is working to significantly cut emissions from transport. The first step has been to encourage employees to use the car less by allowing them to work from home. For those who need to travel, such as factory workers, or office staff attending face-to-face meetings, the company is looking to convert its fleet of leased cars to zero emission electric cars. To find out the best way to do this, Mars began a three-month test on 1 October 2018 in collaboration with its fleet-leasing partners and Belgian renewable electricity company Eneco with three models of electric cars, the Nissan Leaf, the BMW I3 and the E-Golf. Participants, which include a range of employees with different needs, must keep a diary of their life with an e-car to help the company identify potential obstacles, possibilities and solutions to phasing out a combustion engine fleet in favour of an electric one. We have taken a mixed group of people from the sales offices, people with children and people with dogs,” says Heungens, explaining that as a manufacturer of pet food, the company allows staff to bring dogs to work. The electric car is a pleasure to drive, it is smoother and more relaxing than a normal car,” says Heungens. It is a bit like driving on a little cloud.” Heungens also believes driving electric triggers behavioural change: the need to charge the car means using it becomes a conscious decision” and she finds herself using it less. It has not all been plane sailing. Electric cars are still a relatively small part of the market in Belgium and represent less than 1% of new registrations. As a result the choice of leasing options for cars that can keep going for more than 200 kilometres without needing to be recharged is low to non existent. Electric car leasing is still in its infancy. Mars will have to cooperate with various partners, rather than a single supplier, to find the cars its needs. The company has installed charging points in its buildings, but finding public charging points in some regions is difficult. A lack of clarity at various levels of government on incentives for shifting to electric cars is also a barrier, says Mars. Nonetheless, with company cars making up 21% of the overall car fleet in Belgium, Mars is determined to stay the course. It stresses that similar action by lots of companies could reduce emissions significantly. By 2020, it hopes that a minimum of 25% of its leased cars will be 100% electric and 30% of employees will regularly use the electric bike fleet. Ultimately the company may put in place different solutions for different workers, with a mixture of electric cars, electric bikes and potentially app-enabled sharing of them, says Heungens.

Better logistics

Personal transport is only a part of the company’s mobility carbon footprint, with the biggest potential polluter being its delivery fleet. To reduce its deliveries’ emissions, Mars Belgium has opted for boats over lorries. More than 90% of the rice for its Uncle Ben’s factory is harvested in Italy and Spain. The rice is shipped to Belgium and then transported by inland waterways from the port of Antwerp to the factory. The company estimates that the use of waterways keeps the equivalent of over 3250 trucks off the road each year. Since 2016, Mars has also operated its distribution hub as an ecological logistics campus powered by solar energy. Truck loading and routing for every delivery is reviewed to make it as efficient as possible. In future, the volume of CO2 emitted for each delivery will be stated on every consignment note to make retail partners aware of the impact. In parallel to its actions to green its transport, Mars Belgium is looking to reduce its energy use still further. Pre-steaming rice at the Uncle Ben’s factory uses large volumes of water and energy. Together with the local authorities, Mars is looking into powering the process using geothermal energy. The changes are extremely popular with the workforce. Employees are hugely positive,” says Heungens. Rather than pushing people we’re having to pull them back as there is only so much we can deliver.” For her, success in making any company a leader in the clean energy economy lies in working with the right partners; learning locally what can be rolled out more broadly later; and making sure that climate and sustainable development priorities are on the agenda of local, global and regional management teams. Mars CEO Grant Reid says the decision for the company to become sustainable was taken because it’s the right thing to do but also because it’s good business”.

Writer: Philippa Nuttall Jones