Through its snacking division, Mars and Unreasonable Group announced the beginning of a three-year partnership: Unreasonable Food. Unreasonable Food seeks to become the world's premier global initiative focused on supporting rapid growth companies positioned to re-define our food systems - ensuring a more regenerative, inclusive, and equitable future of food for all.
This partnership will support the Mars Net Zero Roadmap and Mars Snacking's sustainability journey, while also delivering a more agile and forward-looking snacking business for Mars, dedicated to serving a just and sustainable tomorrow.
The Mars Unreasonable Food partnership will focus on four distinct pillars: Shaping the Future of Food, Improving Farmer Livelihood, Transforming Food Supply Chains, and Reimagining Sustainable Packaging. These four focus areas are designed to identify, and then accelerate, the areas Mars believes can make a meaningful and differentiated impact given the company's global business footprint and operations.
Each year, Unreasonable will scour the globe through their network of hundreds of investment funds and pipeline partners to identify, privately invite, and ultimately unite growth-stage entrepreneurs best positioned to profitably solve sustainability challenges. Selection of these ventures will be a mutual decision between Unreasonable Group's team and the Mars Snacking team. Over the course of the three-year partnership, Unreasonable Food will be laser-focused on building a portfolio of approximately 40 solutions uniquely situated to future-proof and solve Mars Snacking's key sustainability challenges.
The first cohort of select ventures and prestigious mentors will be announced later this spring. These visionaries in the food supply chain will join Mars Snacking's first Unreasonable Food program for an intimate week-long gathering to align growth-stage founders with a collaborative advantage that includes mentorship from the Mars Snacking global leadership team alongside of some of the most renowned Unreasonable Mentors.
"Mars has the experience, the energy, and the footprint to shape the food future. Doing nothing is not an option," said Amanda Davies, global vice president of R&D, Sustainability, and Commercial at Mars Snacking.
"More than 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity can be attributed to the way we produce, process, and package food. As one of the world's largest food companies with some of the world's most admired brands, Mars Snacking, in partnership with Unreasonable and the entrepreneurs we support together, is uniquely positioned to put that statistic where it belongs— in a museum,” said Daniel Epstein, CEO at Unreasonable Group. “We cannot imagine a more compelling partner to set a new standard for sustainability in our food systems than Mars."
Mars recently unveiled its innovative open-source action plan—the Mars Net Zero Roadmap—to accelerate action toward achieving Net Zero emissions. The Mars plan includes a new target to cut carbon in half by 2030 across its full value chain –which translates into cutting carbon by 15 million metric tons - the equivalent to taking nearly 3 million cars off American roads and highways.
About Mars, Incorporated
Mars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As a global, family-owned business, Mars is transforming, innovating, and evolving to make a positive impact on the world. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of quality confectionery, food, and pet care products and services, we employ 140,000+ dedicated Associates. With almost $45 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world's best-loved brands, including Ben's Original, CESAR, CocoaVia, DOVE, EXTRA®, KIND, M&M'S, SNICKERS, PEDIGRE, Royal Canin and WHISKAS. We're creating a better world for pets through our global network of pet hospitals and diagnostic services—including AniCura, Banfield, BluePearl, Linnaeus and VCA—using cutting edge technology to develop breakthrough programs in genetic health screening and DNA testing.
About Unreasonable Group, LLC
Unreasonable is a Colorado-based, international company that supports a Fellowship for growth-stage entrepreneurs, channels exclusive deal-flow to investors, and partners with some of the world's leading brands to ensure a more just future. The 387 ventures in the Unreasonable Fellowship operate across more than 180 countries, have collectively generated $10 billion in revenue, raised $13bn in financing, and are positively impacting the lives of more than 1,434,646,829 people. As a global community, Unreasonable exists to re-purpose capitalism. Sound Unreasonable? We hope so. Because reasonable ideas seldom change anything.
