Driven by research that shows consumers value ethical and sustainable suppliers, Nestle has revealed plans to double spending over the next decade to around US $787m.
The money will be invested into making their supply chain transparent as far back as groups of farmers. The plan is to achieve this goal by 2025, and then by 2050 to add a Net-zero carbon emission status.
It was not clear how they planned to achieve this, and how much reliance will be put on purchasing carbon credits for offsetting – a measure not considered as environmentally positive as taking actual steps to reduce the real carbon footprint involved in production.
Nestle is following other coffee companies like Olam’s ‘Coffee Lens’, who have already published detailed plans on their sustainability approach, and follows Solidaridad’s recent Coffee Barometer report that is critical of traders and roasters environmental track record.
The program “means a doubling down of our efforts focusing on the three priorities of improving farmer incomes, cutting carbon emissions and moving to recyclable or reusable packaging. Philipp Navratil, head of the beverages strategic business unit at Nestle,
Although the details of the plan are not yet available, it’s understood to fall into the following categories:
- Tracing suppliers to groups of farmers
- Rewarding sustainable growers with premiums
- Recycling efforts
- Cutting carbon emissions
- Setting up monitoring and auditing functions
- Recording the metrics and communicating the results