Marrone Bio Innovations joins United Nations Global Compact & launches environmental, social & governance initiative

Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBII) (MBI), an international leader in sustainable bioprotection and plant health solutions, Monday announced it has joined the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative committed to aligning business strategy and operations with universal principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.

“Sustainability has been one of the cornerstones of Marrone Bio Innovations since our beginning in 2006,” states Kevin Helash, Chief Executive Officer of Marrone Bio Innovations. “We look forward to linking arms with many other like-minded companies through our involvement with the UN Global Compact and are committed to further aligning our corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy with the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs).”

MBI has already been actively implementing and tracking corporate performance on a number of the UN’s SDGs including those around sustainability (water, land, energy and climate change), gender equality, and global partnerships.

In January 2020, MBI released a Comparative Greenhouse Gas Impact Study to determine the greenhouse gas effects of MBI biopesticides. The study, conducted in cooperation with UC-Davis Graduate School of Management, determined that switching from conventional crop protection products to current MBI bioprotectants would, on average, likely result in net reductions of greenhouse gas emissions of 69 percent to 91 percent (or 39 to 46 Kilograms of CO₂ equivalents per acre per year).

“We know our products offer tremendous value to growers and the environment,” states Keith Pitts, Chief Sustainable Officer and Sr. Vice President of Regulatory and Government Affairs. “Conducting additional third-party studies to evaluate and quantify the climate and environmental impact and the carbon trading potential of our products are a key component of our ESG initiative and MBI’s alignment with the UN’s SDGs.”

MBI is set to release findings for another independent analysis conducted by Boundless Impact Research and Analytics, assessing the climate impact for one of MBI’s core products. The study evaluates the impact the product has on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, environmental and human toxicity, and ecosystem degradation.

“The results are very exciting and affirm what we’ve known all along, using biological products is a critical part of the future of sustainable agriculture and reducing our climate impact,” added Pitts. “We are in the final stages of wrapping up the study and anticipate it will be available to the public shortly.”