FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Christine Montenegro McGrath, a food industry veteran, is Chief Impact & Sustainability Officer at Mondelēz International. The Chicago- based snack food giant houses brands ranging from Oreo and Ritz to Toblerone and CLIF Bar.

From her days as an undergrad at Boston College, which included an internship at a consumer goods brand, McGrath has been fascinated by marketing. Fresh out of school with an accounting degree in hand, she landed a job in Chicago in the finance department of Kraft. “I really wanted to work on brands someday and everyone told me I’d need an MBA to do that,” she recalls. “So I went to Northwestern at night, got my degree, and when a marketing role opened up on Philly Cream Cheese, I never looked back.”

In 2012, Kraft spun off its grocery business (which included Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Maxwell House, and Oscar Mayer) and reconstituted its snack and confectionary operations as Mondelēz International. McGrath stuck with the snacks side and, in the years since, has been instrumental in shepherding the company down the sustainability path.

“I spent a good chunk of my career in brand management, then new product innovation and growth consumers, so when I was tapped to focus on sustainability, I approached it as I would any innovation project,” explains the Winnetka resident. “I looked at the data and assessed the risks and opportunities. Because I come from a growth mindset, I needed to understand how a sustainability strategy helps us to create value by being more relevant to consumers and making our businesses more resilient.”

Arguably, Mondelēz International’s most substantive initiative in pursuing sustainability is Cocoa Life. Orchestrated by McGrath, the program is all-encompassing, focusing not only on introducing sustainable farming methods and minimizing environmental impact but championing community development in regions where Mondelēz sources its cocoa. “My job, in a nutshell,” shares McGrath, “is to help lead the work we are doing in the company to have a more positive impact on people and the planet, to—as we say—‘help lift people and shape landscapes in a positive way.’”

Since its inception, Mondelēz has invested $400 million in this effort and worked with 200,000 growers in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, India, and Brazil. Last fall, the company announced its decision to devote another $600 million to the effort by 2030.

“Farming issues, environmental issues, community development issues—our program addresses all three because we believe the challenges are interrelated,” states McGrath. “We are making very good progress, helping farmers attain the knowledge and skills to grow more cocoa on less land and reduce deforestation. Yields are going up, incomes are going up. I was in a village in Cote d’Ivoire where I saw men and women running a meeting, leading their community together, and I knew we were making an impact. We have a long way to go but we are making progress.” By the end of 2021, 75 percent of the Mondelēz chocolate brands, which include Cadbury, were sourcing cocoa through the Cocoa Life program. The goal is to see all the company’s chocolate brands under that umbrella by 2025.

When McGrath began her career, sustainability was barely in the corporate lexicon. “I did not grow up in the sustainability space,” says McGrath, whom today serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the World Cocoa Foundation and the Consumer Goods Forum Sustainability Steering Committee. “I understand brands, the consumers, profit and loss statements, and view sustainability through that business lens. I think of myself as a connector. I am able to bring the issues that I see externally and translate them in a way that business leaders can hear. The work in sustainability allows me to have a much more lasting impact. It’s inspiring.”