No secret ingredients

Maple Leaf Foods is a leading consumer food company based in Canada. The business has one clear goal – to be the most sustainable protein company in the world.

In an industry traditionally known for using artificial ingredients and administering antibiotics to livestock, Maple Leaf Foods decided to be a leader in the 'real food movement'. Today, the company raises animals humanely, uses real ingredients, and eliminates artificial colors, flavors and antibiotics from its products. The business was also the world's first large-scale food company to achieve carbon-neutral status.

Michael acknowledges that Maple Leaf Foods belongs to an industry lacking a great track record on sustainability. "The industry's climate and animal welfare footprint have traditionally been negative," he said. "We wanted to fix those things."

After acquiring the business in 1995 from a private equity firm, Michael's family spent twenty years trying to turn Maple Leaf Foods' fortunes around: "The company was in dire need of a complete overhaul, strategically and operationally. In 2015, we looked in the mirror and asked ourselves, how we do shift from fixing our business to growing it? And why are we doing what we do?"

Around this time of introspection, Michael attended a lunch discussion at Davos in Switzerland – and found himself sitting alongside several activists: "Their goal was to eliminate the animal-protein industry by 2035."

As the owner of an animal-protein business, Michael sat up and took notice: "I had a choice – to defend what we've done or to embrace the criticism."

Michael's experience in Davos crystallized thoughts he'd been thinking for a while. His mind was made up – the company would be part of the solution, not the problem.

"Our business exists to serve the needs of all stakeholders, not just shareholders. So we chose a path of not eliminating animal protein, but fixing the problems in our industry. We chose to embrace sustainable values that benefit all stakeholders, based on the ideal of raising good food. And we established a vision to become the most sustainable protein company on earth. That's inspired our people and customers, and reinvigorated top-line growth."

To balance sharing value across all its stakeholders, Maple Leaf Foods obsesses over metrics: "It's challenging. But to make sure we're doing it the right way, we measure everything. We identify the metrics each stakeholder needs and measure how we're adding value for them."

This same attention to detail applies to the company's employees: "Our culture is very action oriented. And debating is kind of a company sport for us. We're very open to criticism. Nobody has proprietary ownership of judgment. So we're transparent about the imperfections on our journey to sustainability – but we're simultaneously proud of our progress."

For Michael, it all boils down to acting, not talking: "It's not enough for businesses to talk about sustainability. Figuring out what to do is the easy part. But actually getting it done – that's where the real work starts."