By Jessica Yun
In the coming decades, KitKats will be wrapped in fully recycled packaging with a vegan version widely available, coffee from Nespresso pods will be sustainably produced and Milo’s raw ingredients will be made using regenerative agricultural practices.
For the world’s biggest food and beverage maker, Nestle, it’s all part of its commitment to make operations cleaner and greener. The measures include planting trees and overhauling its manufacturing processes.
Nestle Australia will plant 10 million trees within the next three years as part of its parent’s larger reforestation initiative to plant 200 million around the world, but will rely on some of its most popular brands to sell its sustainability efforts to consumers.
Nestle Oceania CEO Sandra Martinez: To coincide with COP27 Biodiversity Day, Nestle Australia is announcing it will plant 10 million trees.Credit: Nikki Short
“We are a food company. We need ingredients that come from the land,” said Nestle Oceania CEO Sandra Martinez. “If we do not ensure that we can restore, renew, protect the land that gives us the ingredients, the nutrients that every one of us puts on the table, we won’t have a future.”
Martinez, who has worked at Nestle for 36 years, warned companies would pay a high price for failing to act on the climate change emergency. “I think we get that sense of urgency.”
Nestle joins other global conglomerates like Cadbury maker Mondelez in being eager to retain consumer dollars and market share by demonstrating its climate credentials.
Nestle Australia has already planted 200,000 of its goal of 10 million trees, which will collectively reduce 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 across 27 years, in a move the company insists is not a token exercise. It made the switch to 100 per cent renewable energy a year ago, with its six Australian factories, two distribution centres, three corporate offices and 20 retail boutiques running on wind power.
The $365 billion global food giant’s reforestation initiative, which in Australia will be delivered in partnership with Greening Australia, Canopy and One Tree Planted, is designed to offset indirect or Scope 3 emissions that are released during the production of the raw materials Nestle uses in its products such as sugar and cocoa.
Two-thirds of Nestle’s total global emissions come from farming and agriculture.
“The most obvious benefit is biodiversity, and that’s great. But it also benefits the soil of that area ... that captures carbon emissions,” said Martinez.
Beyond that, Martinez said the company is overhauling every step of farming and food production for each of its products and associated ingredients. For instance, Nestle will incentivise farmers in west Africa that produce cocoa used in KitKats to employ regenerative agricultural practices, through payment bonuses. Flour production may become less carbon-intensive as Nestle explores trials for regenerative agriculture in grains and cereal farming. It is also looking at ways to reduce methane in dairy.
KitKat in Australia is packaged with 30 per cent recycled plastic.
The production of coffee sold through key brands Nespresso and Nescafe is also being examined by incorporating 100 per cent natural fertilisers and improve shade to retain soil moisture. Nestle is also playing a direct part in improving recycling in Australia: Nespresso pods are recyclable, but only by returning it to a Nespresso boutique, bulk box collection, a florist partner drop-off, or pre-paid AusPost satchels. In light of the collapse of the REDcycle initiative, Nestle is working directly with the Australian Food and Grocery Council to get up a kerbside soft plastic collection.
Since March 2021, Australian KitKats have been made with 30 per cent recycled plastic, with Nestle’s eventual goal of making all packaging 100 per cent recyclable or reusable by 2025.
Nestle Australia made $2.4 billion in revenue in the 2021 calendar year. Its tree-planting project will come out of the Swiss-headquartered company’s coffers, not the local business.
“These sustainability investments that we are committing to are part of forward-looking investments that may not have a payback in the short term, but are absolutely critical for the sustainability of the business in the long term,” said Martinez.
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