Mars Chocolate North America announced that its new manufacturing facility in Topeka, Kan., has earned LEED® Gold certification —an internationally accepted benchmark for designing, constructing and operating green buildings—from the U.S. Green Building Council. The roughly 500,000-square-foot facility, which opened in March, produces M&M'S® Brand Candies and SNICKERS® Bars.
This accolade represents an additional LEED® Gold award for Mars, Incorporated, joining the Mars Chocolate North America corporate headquarters in Hackettstown, N.J., and Mars Petcare's pet food manufacturing facility in Fort Smith, Ark.
"We're proud that this state-of-the-art site engages cutting-edge environmental standards, setting an example for others to follow," said Bret Spangler, Site Director - Topeka, Mars Chocolate North America. "Mars is committed to putting our Principles into Action to drive leadership in sustainability. LEED Gold certification for the Topeka facility is another shining example of our ambitious goal to make our factories and offices 'Sustainable in a Generation.'"
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback applauded the accomplishment. "By working toward, and achieving LEED Gold Status, Mars Topeka continues to demonstrate its commitment to its workers and our community," said Governor Brownback. "This is a tremendous achievement and I congratulate them."
Today, Mars has 11 billion-dollar brands and not everything at Mars is about chocolate. Mar's 78-year-old pet-care division lead by Linda Mars is the company's biggest business, employing nearly half its employees worldwide.
What becomes striking is that Mars family board members are intimately involved in the business by visiting each plant location at least once a year along with the fact that Mars is a sweet company at which to be an employee.
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