Working with Non For profit partners to create jobs and reinforce our local ecosystems through a general interest fund.
The Danone Ecosystem Fund was established in 2009 when the financial crisis and rising unemployment had begun to seriously impact societies around the world. At that time, then Danone CEO Franck Riboud announced that it was time for companies to rethink the way they operated throughout their value chain. He called for partnerships within local ‘ecosystems’.
“It’s in a company’s best interests to take good care of its economic and social environment, meaning its suppliers, its employees, its customers or the places where it operates. That’s what I call its ecosystem” Franck Riboud
The Danone’s €100 million Ecosystem Fund was created at this time to support long term locally-led initiatives with positive social, environmental and business impacts. As of today, this fund has led to the creation of 63 projects in 28 countries.
To make sure the projects where socially and financially sustainable, they are all initiated and co-created by Danone business units in partnership with local NGOs and local communities, covering and seeking to improve supply and demand conditions:
- Upstream initiatives target societal and environmental issues which have an impact on how raw materials are sourced, recycling systems are organised or watersheds are protected. They are critical to leveraging production.
- Downstream projects improve distribution channels and care services, delivering alimentation and knowledge on adapted nutrition at all ages to vulnerable populations.
All the programs are designed to create economic growth. The Fund specifically supports the professional empowerment of “small” local actors with jobs being created or strengthened for smallholder farmers, micro-distributors, care givers and waste pickers. These small players in the local economy see an increase in revenue, as well as improvements in their working conditions, and consequently, improvement of their quality of life, as does that of their families. This is how the Danone Ecosystem Fund contributes to the development of an inclusive economy, reconciling the long term development of an international company with that of small players in the local economy who make up the ‘reinforced ecosystem’.
Our projects around the world
Co-creation is at the heart of our Ecosystem approach. In looking for the best way to strengthen the local economy, we join forces with partners who have local expertise and knowledge of the specific social issues the Fund addresses. Everyday, 45 local subsidiaries from General Managers to Project Managers and over 51 Non For Profit partners work together to find solutions to social, environmental and economic challenges. To ensure the projects’ positive social and environmental impacts, measurement studies are led with academic partners (HEC, William Davidson Institute, ESSEC…) and co-funding is sought to find solutions which create a more inclusive society.
More info about Danone Ecosystem Fund
