Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: General Mills has positive engagement with US climate policy and regulation, which evidence suggests is primarily through the Ceres BICEP Network. While the company has left the US Chamber of Commerce over climate concerns, it remains a member of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which engages highly negatively on climate policy.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: General Mills has positive top-line messaging on climate policy. On its corporate website, accessed in September 2025, the company supports the need to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while advocating for a resilient economic recovery plan and long-term climate solutions. General Mills’ 2024 Global Responsibility Report expresses support for government policy to make sure carbon is priced into the economy. In May 2022, the company signed on to a BICEP coalition joint letter that recognized and advocated for ambitious action to combat climate change. The company occasionally offers positive top-line positions at the state level, though not in recent years: for example, it supported Minnesota’s carbon-neutrality target of 2050 in a joint letter to the state’s governor in September 2022.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: General Mills engages highly positively with US climate-related policy, though primarily through joint letters and high-level advocacy rather than detailed engagement. The company expressed extensive support for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s proposed power plant rules in a series of joint letters through Ceres BICEP in August 2023. General Mills is positive on the issue of road transport, having advocated for strong adoption of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards for all vehicle classes in a Ceres BICEP letter from October 2023. It also engaged extensively with the Growing Climate Solutions Act, as reported in its Q3 2022 US lobbying disclosures, but did not disclose details of its lobbying.
Additionally, the company seems to support the need to address packaging and food waste, actively engaging in multiple coalition efforts to reduce it, according to its Global Responsibility Report 2024 from April 2024 and its 2023 CDP Climate Change Response.
Positioning on Energy Transition: General Mills has positive, though relatively limited, engagement related to the energy transition. According to its corporate website, accessed on September 2024, the company supports the 2023 Farm Bill and advocates for voluntary implementation of regenerative practices via federal conservation programs, partnerships, and technical assistance. Previously, General Mills co-signed Ceres BICEP coalition joint letters supporting policies to electrify commercial buildings in the state of Washington in March 2022 and California in January 2021. In May 2022 the company also co-signed a letter advocating for a federal ZEV mandate similar to California’s Advanced Clean Truck rule.
Industry Association Governance: General Mills publicly discloses a list of its memberships to industry associations on its website, without providing detail on the groups’ positions or its attempts to influence those positions. It has not published a formal review of its direct climate policy engagement or indirect influence through industry associations. Notably, General Mills is a member of the National Association of Manufacturers, which is actively and negatively engaging with US climate policy— in July 2024 for example, NAM endorsed a letter from Congressman Lloyd Smucker opposing the EPA’s finalized power plant rules. On the other hand, General Mills is a member of the Consumer Goods Forum, which advocates mostly positively on climate policy but with highly limited engagement.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in 2024.