Nestlé UKI’s 2020 ONE WORLD virtual event – aimed at educating, empowering and inspiring future leaders of the business to take action and drive systemic change – took place last week.
The three-day virtual festival shone a light on topics related to Nestlé’s three impact areas: Planet, Communities and Individuals & Families.
Planet Day opened with a powerful video on biodiversity, starring David Attenborough. This was followed by Oli Broadhead, a Creative Developer for Eden Project International, who shared his personal experience in the research and design of Eden’s environmental visitor destinations. A biodiversity expert, Broadhead said the planet was in the midst of an existential crisis, while the current system looked at the issue only from a surface level. He said: “The current growth system needs to shift its priorities. The economy should be working for our species.”
This was followed by Bas Tuenter, co-founder of Sustainables, who facilitated a simulator workshop on climate change that handed the audience virtual control of the entire world. The science showed that if the earth remains at its current state, it will heat up to a global average of 4.1°C by the of the century. During the interactive session, he applied many changes including an increase in renewable energies, and the disappearance of fossil fuels, while mapping both against the energy efficiencies of buildings and industry, and amending other factors such as taxes, subsidies, population, afforestation and diet. By applying these changes, an average of 2.0°C was achieved.
Planet Day closed with a presentation and Q&A with Nestlé UKI’s Responsible Sourcing Manager, Robin Sundaram, who discussed Nestlé’s collaboration with its farmers in the UK to drive tangible climate change action. Robin said that by supporting farmers to implement regenerative agricultural practices, Nestlé could make significant strides towards its CO2 commitments.
The second day of the festival, Communities Day, was centred around food poverty and food insecurity. It opened with a thought-provoking video highlighting that the issue does not discriminate and can affect anyone. The first speaker was Iseult Ward, CEO and co-founder of FoodCloud. FoodCloud is an Irish social enterprise that is working to tackle the issue of food waste in Ireland. By redistributing surplus food to approximately 700 local communities, they are reducing both the environmental and social impact of food waste. Nestlé is proud to be partnered with Food Cloud and has worked with them throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside its other partners, FareShare, Community Shop and the Marcus Rashford taskforce.
Next up on Communities Day was the co-chair of the youth board of Bite Back 2030, 20-year-Tasha Mhakayakora, an asylum seeker from Zimbabwe. Tasha passionately shared what she believes the future of food should look like in terms of accessibility and marketing to consumers, particularly to children. At the heart of Bite Back is its youth board – a team of passionate teenage activists from across the UK who are campaigning for more opportunities to be healthy. Their main goal is to build a movement of young people who can get the big players in business and government to listen and act.
Communities Day wrapped up with two Nestlé speakers, Doro Heinze, Senior Public Affairs Manager and Kate Power, Head of Nutrition Health and Wellness. Both Doro and Kate endorsed the points made by Iseult and Tasha and shared the work Nestlé is doing in using its platform to raise awareness and continue advocating for change in the industry in terms of food affordability, accessibility and health.
Finally - Individuals & Families Day, a day centred around personal leadership. First up was award-winning entrepreneur and founder of Nubian Skin, Ade Hassan. After years of struggling to find skin-tone undergarments that matched her darker skin, she decided to create a company that would offer women of colour different options. After years of being unhappy in the corporate world, she decided to pursue something that she knew would not only make her happy but change the lives of others. Ade offered an empowering call-to-action to the audience, challenging them make a decision, map out how to get from point A to point B, then push to make the change. She said: “I am speaking to the young leaders today to remind them that change comes about when individuals decide to take action. I have so much faith in this generation, and I know that their action can lead us even closer to reaching the sustainable development goals.”
The festival closed with three Nestlé speakers and members of the ONE WORLD network – Marketing Graduate Hannah Debson, eContent Executive Zhana Gavriluk and Responsible Sourcing Manager, Robin Sundaram. They shared their views and personal experiences regarding diversity, equal opportunities and the project they are working on to drive further systemic change within Nestlé in terms of diversity and inclusion.