Press release – Paris, February 3rd, 2020

Danone recognized as a global environmental leader, becoming
one of the 6 companies with ‘AAA’ score by CDP worldwide

  • Danone obtained a ‘triple A’ score by nonprofit organization CDP in recognition of its leading environmental efforts, namely in tackling climate change, fighting deforestation and protecting water cycles.
  • This prestigious distinction acknowledges Danone’s unique commitments to being a game-changer and to fostering positive environmental solutions, in line with its ‘One Planet. One Health’ vision.

Danone has been recognized as a global environmental leader, becoming one of only 6 companies – among 8,400 organizations assessed – with a ‘triple A’ score by CDP, the international nonprofit charity that runs the global disclosure system allowing investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts.

CDP’s annual “A Lists” for Climate change, Forests and Water security name the world's most pioneering companies on environmental transparency and performance. Being included in these three prestigious lists is a great recognition of Danone’s environmental actions and progress towards its ambition of becoming carbon neutral, achieving zero deforestation in its supply chain and protecting water cycles. It also demonstrates the high degree of transparency of Danone’s reporting.

Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and CEO at Danone, declared: “We are very proud to get a ‘triple A’ score by CDP, which is truly helping organizations build a more sustainable economy by measuring and understanding their environmental impact. I would like to thank our teams for this great achievement, which acknowledges the resilience of the model we are building through our ‘One Planet. One Health’ business model, in a transparent way. This encourages us to keep working with partners to drive change and better take into account major positive and negative externalities that are both crucial and available to finance a radically more inclusive, multidimensional and resilient growth."

Paul Simpson, CEO of CDP, said: “Congratulations to the companies that achieved a position on CDP’s A Lists this year, for leading in environmental performance and transparency. The scale of the business risks from the climate emergency, deforestation and water insecurity are vast – as are the opportunities from addressing them – and it’s clear the private sector has a vital role to play at this critical time. The A List companies are leading the market in corporate sustainability, tackling environmental risks and setting themselves up to thrive in tomorrow’s economy.”

As part of its journey towards carbon neutrality on its full value chain by 2050, Danone set intermediate carbon reduction targets for 2030 which were officially approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative in 2017. Danone’s strategy is based on reducing emissions, transforming agricultural practices to sequester more carbon in the soil, eliminating deforestation from its supply chain in key commodities, and offsetting the emissions that remain.
Danone recently strengthened its commitments through the signature of “Business Ambition for 1.5°C” pledge, alongside 190 other institutions. This represents a significant acceleration of the company’s GHG direct and indirect emission reduction targets, across its extended value chain1.
Danone brands are also taking tangible action to accelerate their journey towards a balanced footprint of zero net carbon emissions. Within the Danone Waters division, four major brands have already committed to becoming carbon neutral in the coming years: evian by 2020, Lanjarón and Volvic by 2025 and Font Vella by 2030.

Danone remains fully committed to eliminating deforestation on key commodities in its supply chain by 2020. In 2019, Danone along with 18 forward-thinking companies and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched a business-led coalition - “One Planet Business for Biodiversity” (OP2B) - to protect and restore biodiversity within its supply chain and portfolios of products, with the aim to eliminate deforestation, enhance the management, restoration and protection of high-value natural ecosystems.

Danone began its journey to protect water cycles more than two decades ago, by partnering with the Ramsar convention on wetlands in 1998. Today, Danone is supporting locally-adapted solutions to water quality, quantity and access both in its operations and its value chain. It has adopted a water stewardship strategy focusing on 4 pillars: water in operations, protecting ecosystems, promoting sustainable agriculture and increasing access to safe drinking water for populations.

To continue its transparency efforts, Danone is going to join The FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which develops voluntary, consistent climate-related financial risk disclosures for use by companies in providing information to investors, lenders, insurers, and other stakeholders.

A detailed and independent methodology is used by CDP to assess companies, allocating a score of A to D- based on the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership.

The three A-Lists for Climate change, Water protection and Forests, and full company scores are available on CDP’s website: https://www.cdp.net/en/companies/companies-scores

About CDP 

CDP is a global non-profit that drives companies and governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests. Voted number one climate research provider by investors and working with institutional investors with assets of US$96 trillion, we leverage investor and buyer power to motivate companies to disclose and manage their environmental impacts. Over 8,400 companies with over 50% of global market capitalization disclosed environmental data through CDP in 2019. This is in addition to the over 920 cities, states and regions who disclosed, making CDP’s platform one of the richest sources of information globally on how companies and governments are driving environmental change. CDP is a founding member of the We Mean Business Coalition. Visit https://cdp.net/en or follow us @CDP to find out more.  

About Danone (www.danone.com)

Dedicated to bringing health through food to as many people as possible, Danone is a leading global food & beverage company building on health focused and fast-growing categories in three businesses: Essential Dairy & Plant-based products, Waters and Specialized Nutrition. Danone aims to inspire healthier and more sustainable eating and drinking practices, in line with its ‘One Planet. One Health’ vision which reflects a strong belief that the health of people and that of the planet are interconnected. To bring this vision to life and create superior, sustainable, profitable value for all its stakeholders, Danone has defined its 2030 Goals: a set of nine integrated goals aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Danone commits to operating in an efficient, responsible and inclusive manner; it holds itself to the highest standards in doing business, as reflected by its ambition to become one of the first multinationals certified as B CorpTM. With more than 100,000 employees, and products sold in over 120 markets, Danone generated €24.7 billion in sales in 2018. Danone’s portfolio includes leading international brands (Actimel, Activia, Alpro, Aptamil, Danette, Danio, Danonino, evian, Nutricia, Nutrilon, Volvic, among others) as well as strong local and regional brands (including AQUA, Blédina, Bonafont, Cow & Gate, Horizon, Mizone, Oikos, Prostokvashino, Silk, Vega, Happy Family). 
Listed on Euronext Paris and on the OTCQX market via an ADR (American Depositary Receipt) program, Danone is a component stock of leading social responsibility indexes including the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, Vigeo Eiris, the Ethibel Sustainability Index, MSCI Global Sustainability, MSCI Global SRI Indexes and the FTSE4Good Index.



1 Scopes 1, 2 and 3 as defined by the GreenHouse Gas Protocol




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  • PR 2019 CDP

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