In Nestlé’s bid to meet a series of commitments in areas where the company engages with society, they have pledged to continuously create shared value and promote sustainability and practice compliance. This is seen in their 35-page pledges to cover nutrition, water, rural development, sustainability and compliance.
The report underlines Nestlé’s fundamental belief that, for a company to be successful over the long term and create value for shareholders, it must also create value for society. The commitments show our determination to achieve this.
They include, for example, leading the industry in nutrition and health research, and providing nutritionally sound products designed for children. Nestlé aims to fulfil all these commitments by 2020 or earlier. Ten are new this year and six are updated, based on feedback from stakeholders over the last 12 months.
In Nestle in 2013, 7,789 products have been renovated for nutrition or health considerations, more than 67 billion servings of fortified products have been provided, packaging material has been reduced by 66,594 tonnes, saving CHF 158 million, overall water withdrawals have been reduced by 33% per tonne of product since 2005, 300,000 farmers have been trained through capacity-building programmes and there has been an absolute reduction in direct GHG emissions of 7.4% has been achieved since 2005.
Nestle has been ranked number one by the charity Oxfam in its 2013 Behind the Brands scorecard, ranked one of the top 3 global food and beverage manufacturers in the Access to Nutrition Index, led its industry group in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2013, remains the only infant formula manufacturer included in FTSE’s responsible investment index and achieved the maximum score in the CDP Climate Performance Leadership Index.
According to Paul Bulcke, chief executive officer, “Nestlé is all about quality of life and nutrition – that is what we live for as a company. But the relevance of that is the value that it creates: for consumers, for society and for our business – driving competitive advantage and R&D, being ahead of the curve, and building our brand value.”
Kemi Ajumobi
