This year and every year
Each year, Earth Day is a time to reflect and take stock on the future of our planet and the important role we have to play in protecting it. When we come together as individuals, families, communities and through the roles we play in our company, we have the potential to make a real difference.
At Nestlé we're proud to be playing our part. We're committed to our goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2025 and 50% by 2030 on the pathway to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.
One of the things that keeps me motivated working in sustainability at Nestlé is the sheer scale of impact that we can have. In 2023, we reduced our greenhouse gas footprint by 13.58% compared to our 2018 baseline. That's a total of 13.29 million tonnes of greenhouse gases reduced or removed from the atmosphere, so we are well on our way to our first milestone in 2025.
Key to achieving this is our focus on driving a largescale shift towards more regenerative agricultural practices, transitioning to renewable energy, and transforming our packaging and logistics. By 2025 we aim to design more than 95% of our plastic packaging for recycling and we continue to work towards making our packaging recyclable or reusable.
Switching up our logistics
In the last year alone, we've made a lot of changes to how we move products around – our logistics. Most recently, we announced that all of our Nestlé-owned HGVs have now switched to run on alternative fuels, removing all diesel from our fleet operations. Some are electric and some are powered by HVO fuel or Bio-LNG, a liquefied gas which is a by-product of waste.
2023 also saw us deliver a first-of-its-kind rail container trial which facilitates the delivery of double-stacked pallets to Tesco. The advanced rail container utilises a roof raising mechanism to maximise its capacity. One tonne of products moved by a rail journey produces 76% less emissions than a diesel road journey1 and each of these innovative freight trains has the potential to take up to 76 heavy goods vehicles off the roads.
A focus on farming
More than two thirds of our business’ carbon footprint comes from the ingredients that make up our products, which is why regenerative farming is so important to us. We're aiming to source 20% of our ingredients regeneratively by 2025. This means working with our agricultural supply chain to incentivise farming methods that improve soil health, maintain and restore diverse ecosystems and that safeguard water resources.
Last year we celebrated an important milestone: it was the 20th anniversary of our partnership with First Milk. The partnership enables us to work with 85 farmers across Cumbria and Ayrshire to provide high-quality fresh milk for brands like KitKat and Nescafé.
As well as a focus on dairy farming, we also have a sustainable farming initiative which operates at landscape scale and involves collaborating with a range of partners, known as Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs). One LENs programme in East Anglia forms partnerships with our British wheat farmers, and we’ve worked hard to double the scale of this initiative, which now involves more than 120 farmers who supply our Nestlé Cereals and Purina businesses. As a result, the initiative regenerates more than 20,000 hectares of British farmland – the equivalent of more than 49,000 football pitches.
Taking action
A huge part of transforming our portfolio relies on our relationships with our partners across our supply chain. It's important that we all share the same vision so we can shift the dial towards a more sustainable future.
I'm really proud of the work that we've done collectively in the UK and Ireland to reduce our emissions footprint and embed sustainability and I'm really excited for the projects and new initiatives we have to come. But it's clear our work isn't done; there's still a huge amount we need to do, and we need everybody to play their part.
At Nestlé we empower everyone to think about sustainability in everything they do, as it’s all the small actions that add up to make a big difference. We’re a company that is full of passionate people who want to make a difference to our planet, not just for today but for future generations.
So, this Earth Day...
Let's mark the day with a promise to reflect, do more and strive to take action on climate change. You can find out more about acting on climate change here.
