The latest Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report and summary from General Mills – including a new website and more videos – was formally released today. The 86-page report details a number of company firsts on our progress in improving our health, community and environmental commitments, including: 

• Improving health profile. We improved the profile of 24 percent of our U.S. retail sales volume in fiscal 2010 – our largest one-year gain in our history.
• Historic giving. For the first time ever, the company contributed more than $100 million to charitable causes in fiscal 2010.
• Renewable energy. We brought online our first biomass burner at our oat mill in Fridley, Minn., and installed our first solar panels in the U.S. at our warehouse in Methuen, Mass.

“The new report – and website – represents the culmination of a several-year effort to raise the profile of General Mills as a socially responsible company,” says Chris Shea, executive vice president of External Relations and president of the General Mills Foundation. “The website and report bring this commitment to life better than ever.”

This marks the 41st year that General Mills has issued some form of report to the community, but this is the richest and deepest.

“The videos – including the CSR overview video – make this report even more accessible,” says Kim Nelson, senior vice president who will assume overall oversight of External Relations in August. “Every day, we work to earn the trust of our consumers and partners worldwide, and this report updating our responsibility efforts is integral to maintaining that trust.”

“All of this information is designed to communicate – with both the heart and mind – our progress to improve our standing as one of the most socially responsible consumer food companies in the world,” says Grant Moos, a Corporate Communications manager who oversaw the development of the report and website. 

 Inside General Mills