Ron Christenson
Corporate Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, CARGILL
Customer opinions included on this web site have not been edited by GE.
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Corporate responsibility and sustainability are now center stage with business today. There is a new imperative for global companies to pay greater attention to our total impact on society and the environment — for our employees, our customers, our stakeholders. This is not a single goal but is part of everything we do every day in our business, continuously improving our standards, our practices, our processes.
As a global food, agriculture and risk management company, we are responsible for the safe handling of food that nourishes millions of people around the world. Our responsibilities extend to those who rely on us for assurances in the food and feed we supply and to monitor the environmental and social impact of the products we source, transport, process and trade across our supply chains.
Moreover, with increasing urbanization among the world’s population, impacts brought on by global climate change and rapid growth in new emerging markets, we see global agriculture experiencing even more extraordinary demands to meet the needs of tomorrow.
There is a convergence of many factors — among them, GHG emissions will rise substantially by 2015. The number of people who live in water-stressed regions will increase by 65 percent by 2025. By 2050, global population is expected to grow by 3 billion and overall consumption is expected to double. As responsible global companies, we must channel efforts towards innovation that can help address these challenges and present new opportunities for our stakeholders and society.
GE is an attractive partner to help us respond to these pressures. Together, we are finding ways to increase production efficiencies and optimize water and resource use, applying new technology to improve production processes and gain energy efficiencies, and working to capture new applications for renewables in our businesses and facilities.
