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CH 6] Business 101 6-3

RESPONSIBILITY: Committed to treating the World with Care
Our priorities and progress

Food | Making Food the World Loves
 45% of General Mills global volume met the company’s criteria as Nutrition-Forward Foods
 100% of our facilities are audited and/or certified using globally recognized food safety
criteria
 General Mills is the second-largest branded natural and organic food producer in the U.S.

Planet | Protecting our Planet
 Our greenhouse gas footprint decreased 14% in 2019 compared to 2010.
 91% of our top 10 ingredients were sustainably sourced in 2019.
 We will advance regenerative agricultural practices on 1 million acres of farmland by 2030.

Community | Building strong communities
 We gave $93 million to charitable causes in fiscal 2019.
 Our food donations enabled 28 million meals globally in 2019.
 Improved livelihoods of 22,000+ people in cocoa and vanilla farming communities in Africa.

People | Putting people first
 Our total global injury rate was 0.89 injuries per 100 employees in fiscal 2019, significantly
below food-industry averages.
 50% of professional positions and 35% of company officer positions are held by women
globally.
 Overall employee engagement score reached 80% , a 5% increase from 2018

Source” General Mills Website; https://www.generalmills.com/en/Responsibility/Overview, Accessed 6 April
6
2020.
meets the needs of the community, and thus contributes to the success of the
community; and is socially responsible. One can easily recognize that social
responsibility is management's consideration of the societal and economic effects of
its decision making; today a political morality concept for American business. Some
companies such as Kraft, Dow Chemical, General Mills, and Cooper Industries will
use the term corporate citizenship interchangeably with social responsibility. What part of what
Then there is the politician who cries for his reelection on the basis that he will someone else has
raise taxes on business because “they need to pay their fair share.” Have you ever earned is actually
yours?
heard one them, who using this cry, actually explain what they mean by “fair share”? — Thomas Sowell
It is important to recognize that whenever government increases the cost of doing
business, whether that is through expensive regulations or direct and indirect taxes,
those costs levied and incurred on the business are actually passed on to the consumers
in the form of higher prices they pay. But, of course, no politician will explain that
small, expensive caveat. Hillary Clinton (D) as the Democrat Party’s Presidential
candidate and former Secretary of State under Mr. Obama (D) has stated that she
believes in a “free enterprise system with strong government regulations.” Her
statement is the political economic definition for Fascism as devised by Benito
Mussolini, who started fascism in Italy. Is Hillary or the politician campaigning for
reelection on these terms being socially responsible?
What is it that makes a business a good citizen, a member of the physical
community, and act responsibly toward its community? In Los Angeles, a commuter
train and freight train were derailed by an individual who purposefully parked a Jeep
Cherokee on the tracks with malicious intent. The local Costco store’s employees
pulled out pallets of water, food, and other essentials to aide rescue workers and the
injured in this incident. Was Costco and its employees acting ethically and in a
socially responsible manner?

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