Mars promotes company veteran to chief sustainability officer
Alastair Child will move from the sustainability lead at the snack division to inherit the overall Mars goal to halve emissions by 2030. Read More

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Mars is promoting Alastair Child from his current role as a vice president of global sustainability to chief sustainability officer, effective in early February. He replaces chief procurement and sustainability officer Barry Parkin, who recently announced his retirement after 40 years at the candymaker.
Child’s existing role focuses on the company’s snack products, which include Snickers and M&M’s. His new position will also encompass Mars’ food and pet products, businesses that together generated $50 billion in 2024 and employ 150,000 people. Child will report to Andy Pharoah, vice president for corporate affairs and sustainability.
The privately held, 114-year-old company has made meaningful sustainability progress, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 16 percent from a 2015 baseline while growing revenue 60 percent. Child is responsible for delivering the reductions needed to meet a decade-end goal of a 50 percent cut and achieve net-zero by 2050. The company’s targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative as in line with 1.5 degrees of warming.
Child has spent 23 years at Mars, rising from a brand manager through positions that included director of cocoa sustainability, according to his LinkedIn page. He previously spent a year in the British Army and taught in Malawi, South Africa, Fiji and Tonga.
“With average global temperatures exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels for the first time in 2024, it is imperative that we continue to perform on our promises and in doing so prove that sustainability is good for business,” Child said in a statement announcing his promotion.
