Ingredion's Sustainable Innovation Strategy
Ingredion is a leading global ingredient solutions provider, supplying some of the world's largest consumer packaged goods companies, including Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Nestle. These companies are under significant pressure to meet ambitious climate and carbon footprint commitments due to their substantial impact on the agricultural sector and is associated GHG emissions. As a key supplier, Ingredion not only pursues its own sustainability agenda but also seeks to offer products and solutions that help customers reduce their carbon footprint, particularly their scope 3 emissions. While Ingredion has a history of innovation, they wanted a more systematic approach to identifying and developing sustainable products. Our consultancy collaborated with Ingredion to integrate a sustainability layer across their entire portfolio, align internal functions, and create a sustainable innovation strategy that garnered senior-level buy-in and support.
The Food Industry in Transformation
Ingredion's journey with us began through mutual recognition of the industry's growing need for sustainable solutions. As a major supplier to companies with significant climate commitments, Ingredion faced the dual challenge of meeting its sustainability goals while supporting its customers' efforts to reduce carbon footprints. Our initial consultation focused on understanding Ingredion's existing sustainability initiatives and the potential opportunities in their strategy, particularly in identifying and developing sustainable products systematically.
Developing a Sustainable Innovation Strategy
Our engagement with Ingredion was multifaceted, involving a deep dive into their product portfolio and internal processes. Key steps included:
Internal Alignment: Engaging Ingredion's R&D, sales, procurement, and other functions to build consensus around sustainability priorities.
Innovation Forum: Leveraging Ingredion's annual innovation forum as a focal event to present the sustainable innovation narrative and secure senior-level buy-in.
Strategic Framework: Providing informatoin and recommendations to inform a comprehensive sustainable innovation strategy and setting clear company goals for product innovation.
Business Case Development: Articulating the business case for investing in sustainable products and communicating this effectively to senior leadership during the forum.
Setting Priorities, Strategy and Implementation
The successful alignment and strategic framework resulted in strong support for a sustainable innovation strategy, including:
Establishing specific targets for increasing the percentage of sustainable products in their portfolio.
Creating new sales opportunities with sustainability-minded customers.
Continuing to refine goals and targets, identifying the right data and systems to evaluate product sustainability accurately, and advancing Ingredion's global sustainability efforts.
Our ongoing partnership ensures that Ingredion remains at the forefront of sustainable innovation, continuously improving their sustainability metrics and aligning their product offerings with the evolving needs of their customers and the planet.