General Mills strives to be the healthiest, safest, most environmentally responsible consumer foods company in the world.

Preserving employee health, preventing employee injuries and protecting the environment are core values for us. General Mills takes a proactive approach to health, safety and environmental issues that affect the company, its employees and the public.

Employee Health

			General Mills promotes the highest level of health and well-being for its employees.

The company offers a broad spectrum of health and wellness programs, preventive care and medical treatment with the focus on prevention — and on motivating our employees to take responsibility for their physical, mental and social well-being. Well-informed employees are better able to make healthy decisions, and good health contributes to championship personal performance.

Safety

General Mills strives to be the safest consumer foods company in the world. We not only comply with government safety regulations in every country in which we do business, but also establish our own high standards and best practices to further ensure a safe and healthy workplace for our employees.

General Mills operates and maintains equipment with workplace safety in mind and regularly conducts safety training to ensure that employees understand, apply and follow proper safety procedures. Compliance audits are completed at all General Mills locations.

	The frequency of total injuries and of lost time injuries dropped by more than 14 percent in the past year across our North American operations, further reducing rates that were already among the best in our industry.

In addition, several of our manufacturing facilities reached important milestones last year:

• Twenty-three of 53 North American manufacturing facilities completed the year with zero workers' compensation losses per hour worked.
• Three of our 23 international locations reported zero lost time injuries.

Environment

			We believe we have a corporate responsibility to be environmental stewards in our local communities.

We operate our business within the many environmental regulatory requirements of the various countries, provinces, states and cities in which we live and work. We have established and implemented environmental management systems designed to identify, track and report on key environmental parameters for our businesses. Several international locations have achieved registration to ISO 14001, the global standard for environmental management systems. All of our locations are audited to ensure compliance with government regulations.

Wastewater Effluents

Our goal is to manage wastewater in a manner that does not adversely impact the ground, water or air. In North America, our manufacturing facilities typically discharge wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) where it is treated prior to release. In addition, most plants have permits that specify the quality parameters of the effluent.

Internationally, our facilities discharge wastewater in accordance with local and country standards that, at a minimum, meet and sometimes exceed comparable requirements in the United States.

Air Emissions

Air emissions are regulated in the United States by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which sets air emissions standards. State and local governments also have authority to issue air permits, including setting air emission standards and limitations within which businesses may need to operate.

Our facilities in other parts of the world also are governed by air emission regulations, although the regulations vary by country. Most facility air permits are encompassed within site operating licenses.

Water

Water is critical to our manufacturing operations, as water is an essential ingredient in many of our products. Water is also important in cleaning sanitary food processing facilities. We obtain water only from reliable, sanitary sources and use it efficiently, setting goals to reduce the amount of water used where possible. All incoming water is routinely tested for suitability with treatment provided as necessary.

Transportation

Transportation costs are driven primarily by logistics, mode of transport, vehicle efficiency and timing. All of these considerations impact the efficiency of transport services and affect the air emissions and energy needed for these services.

Packaging

Where possible, we design our products and packaging to minimize environmental impact. Recycled or recyclable materials are used in packaging where feasible in accordance with food safety regulations.

			General Mills is among the largest users of recycled paper packaging in the United States.

Our efforts are guided by five basic principles.

1. Minimizing the amount of materials used in packaging, while maintaining the safety and quality of our products.
2. Maximizing the use of recycled materials in packaging.
3. Increasing the use of packaging materials that can be recycled.
4. Using packaging materials that do not release harmful substances when disposed.
5. Displaying appropriate codes and symbols on packaging to identify those made from recycled content materials or to direct consumers on how to recycle packaging.

Energy

Our locations have programs and systems in place to track energy usage. Each location has a program to ensure continuing awareness of energy use and conservation. Locations monitor their energy use and have established appropriate energy conservation targets.

	Since fiscal 2000, our North American operations have reduced total energy usage by 6 percent — nearly 1 million kWh. Our international facilities reduced their energy usage by 3 percent over the same period.

Greenhouse Gases

Our businesses and operations address the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by focusing on energy conservation. General Mills is a member of the Business Roundtable (BRT) and is participating in the BRT's Climate RESOLVE initiative, which reports annually the member companies' contributions of greenhouse gases to the U.S. Department of Energy. The BRT initiative aims to reduce the emission of global warming gases by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 on a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) basis.

General Mills also has established an internal task force to track and review emissions and implement a cohesive program across our businesses. We have initiated an energy usage tracking system. Other sources of carbon dioxide also will be analyzed as part of our Climate RESOLVE involvement.

Ozone Depleting Substances

Ozone depleting substances are reported to be responsible for the reduction in the protective layer of ozone surrounding the earth. Typically, these are chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC). Not generally used in food production, these chemicals were historically used in noncontact applications such as coolants and refrigerants.

General Mills maintains internal guidelines and programs to reduce or eliminate the release of ozone-depleting substances. North American operations have nearly eliminated all large uses of CFC and have established programs and capital projects to further eliminate HCFC. Any remaining systems that contain these chemicals are closely monitored. Our international facilities have eliminated all uses of CFC and HCFC.

2006 Environmental Report

Organic Products
		General Mills is a major producer of certified organic products for the mainstream marketplace. Small Planet Foods, with its category-leading Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen brands, offers consumers expanded opportunities to choose a variety of organic and natural foods.

Small Planet Foods

Environmental Sustainability

The General Mills Sustainability Initiative is a companywide effort to responsibly manage the natural resource base our business depends on. As a leading consumer packaged food company, we are committed to balancing our current and future resource needs with the natural resource requirements of future generations.

Our principle approach to sustainability is to become more "eco-efficient." Simply stated, eco-efficiency is the practice of producing more from less. We are committed to the process of building environmental stewardship and excellence into our business strategy and our corporate culture.

Commitment to the Community

We also reach out to the community through programs that educate, train and support environmental awareness and action. Throughout the country, General Mills employees have helped improve and protect the environment by adopting roads, cleaning up parks, organizing household hazardous waste collections, planting trees and sponsoring educational events in schools and communities.