General Mills ranks 37th in US, 65th globally in 2014 Newsweek Green Rankings that assess companies' environmental performance

Nevin Barich

MINNEAPOLIS , June 6, 2014 (press release) – Today General Mills was named to Newsweek’s 2014 Green Rankings for its commitment to corporate sustainability and efficiently managing environmental impact within the company’s operations. The rankings are a respected and credible assessment of environmental performance. This year, General Mills ranks 37th out of 500 best publicly traded U.S. companies and 65th out of 500 best publicly traded global companies, the company’s highest placements since the rankings were initiated in 2009.

As a global food company, General Mills is positioned not only to create economic value in the countries where it operates, but to create social and environmental value as well. The company recognizes the importance of transparency to stakeholders and has made strong progress in this area.

General Mills is also addressing the challenge of balancing the need to produce more food for the world’s growing population with the need to conserve and protect the natural resources on which the business depends. In response to this challenge, General Mills announced in 2013 its commitment to sustainably source 100 percent of its 10 priority ingredients by 2020 – representing more than 50 percent of its annual raw material purchases.

“These rankings provide further validation of our sustainability commitment to conserve and protect the natural resources and communities upon which our business depends,” said Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer and vice president for General Mills. “We’re committed to transparency throughout our entire supply chain -- starting upstream by reducing resource usage in our operations, all the way through to our consumers by increasing the sustainability of our key ingredients.”

The Newsweek Green Rankings measures the environmental performance of large public companies using eight clearly defined, combined key performance indicators:

Energy Productivity
GHG Productivity
Water Productivity
Waste Productivity
Reputation
Sustainability Pay Link
Sustainability Board Committee
Audited Environmental Metrics
“What we’re seeing more and more is a direct link between corporate sustainability, reputation, and financial success,” said Elijah Wolfson, senior editor at Newsweek. “Many of the world’s largest public companies have begun to recognize that in order to be successful moving forward, they need to openly account for their environmental impact. The goal of Newsweek’s Green Rankings is to add to and push for this type of accountability.”

The Newsweek Green Rankings follow six core principles:

· Transparency

· Objectivity

· Public Data

· Comparability

· Engagement

· Stakeholders

General Mills is recognized among other companies such as Adobe Systems, Unilever and Ecolab. The full list and related stories appear online at Newsweek.com.

Data is collected from primary sources including annual reports, audited financial statements, proxy statements and sustainability reports. Secondary data is obtained from RepRisk, Bloomberg and the Carbon Disclosure Project (via Bloomberg).

A panel of experts including the chief executive of Global Reporting Initiative, a Harvard Business School professor, the president of Earth Day Network, the chairman of GlobeScan and others notables make up the review committee.

To see General Mills’ full list of corporate recognitions, visit the company’s online awards list.

Methodology

To pick the 500 best publicly traded U.S. companies and the 500 best publicly traded global companies, Newsweek partners with the Corporate Knights Capital to show which companies are generating the most revenue with the least amount of environmental impact. To get there, eight clearly defined key performance indicators are taken in to account including carbon, energy, water, waste, and the extent to which internal governance is geared towards sustainability.

For more information on the 2014 Newsweek Green Rankings visit Newsweek.com and for ranking methodology visit 2014 Newsweek Green Rankings.

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About General Mills

General Mills is one of the world’s leading food companies, operating in more than 100 countries around the world. Its brands include Cheerios, Fiber One, Häagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Yoplait, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Old El Paso, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki, and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., USA, General Mills had fiscal 2013 worldwide sales of US $17.8 billion.

For more information contact:

Kris Patton

General Mills

(763) 764-6364

media.line@genmills.com

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