Ingredion is a leading global ingredient-solutions provider, supplying some of the world's largest consumer packaged goods companies — including Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Nestlé. Those companies are under significant pressure to meet ambitious climate and carbon-footprint commitments, given their substantial impact on the agricultural sector and its associated GHG emissions.
As a key supplier, Ingredion not only pursues its own sustainability agenda but seeks to offer products and solutions that help customers reduce their carbon footprint — particularly their scope 3 emissions. While Ingredion has a long history of innovation, they wanted a more systematic approach to identifying and developing sustainable products. We 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.
The food industry in transformation
Our journey with Ingredion 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 a dual challenge: meeting its own sustainability goals while supporting its customers' efforts to reduce carbon footprints. Our initial consultation focused on understanding Ingredion's existing initiatives and the opportunities in their strategy — particularly in identifying and developing sustainable products systematically.
Developing a sustainable innovation strategy
Our engagement was multifaceted, involving a deep dive into Ingredion's product portfolio and internal processes. Key steps included:
- Internal alignment — engaging 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 the information and recommendations to inform a comprehensive strategy and set clear company goals for product innovation.
- Business case — articulating the case for investing in sustainable products, and communicating it effectively to senior leadership at the forum.
Setting priorities 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 the portfolio.
- Creating new sales opportunities with sustainability-minded customers.
- Refining goals and targets, and identifying the right data and systems to evaluate product sustainability accurately.
Our ongoing partnership ensures that Ingredion remains at the forefront of sustainable innovation by continuously improving their sustainability metrics and aligning their product offerings with the evolving needs of their customers and the planet.
Building the case for sustainable innovation?
Whether you have a question about sustainable product innovation, need to build a business case for sustainability, or have to deliver a major story that has to land — we'd love to hear from you.
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