Nestlé in society Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2015

Nestlé in society:
Creating Shared Value
Nutrition, health
and wellness
Rural development
Water
Environmental
sustainability
Human rights
and compliance
Our
people
G4-EC7, Procurement practices G4-DMA, Supplier environmental assessment G4-DMA, G4-EN33, Supplier assessment for labor practices G4-DMA, G4-LA15, Indigenous rights G4-DMA,
Supplier human rights assessment G4-DMA, G4-HR10, G4-HR11, G4-SO2, Animal welfare G4-DMA, Supplier assessment for impacts on society G4-DMA, G4-SO9, G4-SO10
A series of reports on the topic, including one from Oxfam
into land tenure and supply chains, have explored food and
beverage companies’ land rights policies relating to sugar,
palm oil and soya. Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) of the United Nations produced Voluntary
Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGTs)
of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food
Security.
In our Nestlé Commitment on Land & Land Rights in
Agricultural Supply Chains, we adopt the FAO VGGTs, and
commit both to zero tolerance for land grabs, and to holding
suppliers accountable for community land rights. In short, we
commit to source our raw materials from land that has not
been illegally or unfairly taken. We advocate for others to do
likewise, and work with a range of stakeholders to help the
landless gain access to land, with a focus on tenure for
women.
We have participated in a multi-stakeholder process hosted
by the Rights and Resources Initiative and the Interlaken
Group, which has developed operational guidelines for
companies to operationalise the VGGTs.
The work of our partners, such as TFT and Proforest,
includes assessments of our suppliers – and their suppliers –
to determine the status of land ownership and any land
conflicts, and to ensure that the principles of Free, Prior and
Informed Consent (FPIC) are applied during the due diligence
process that leads to any new land acquisition.
Farm animal health and welfare in the supply chain
Nestlé recognises and shares the concerns of our stakeholders
about the welfare of animals raised for food and the need to
ensure sustainable animal production systems. Through our
Supplier Code and RSG, which contain a specific commitment
on this issue, we are helping to bring about positive change
throughout our supply chains.
In 2015, Nestlé continued to build on its public commitment
to continuously improve the health, care and welfare of farm
animals in our global supply chain.
Our mandatory Nestlé Supplier Code requires each of our
suppliers of animal-derived ingredients to meet all applicable
laws and regulations on animal welfare, and to communicate
this to their suppliers and to the farmers themselves. To further
improve the health, care and welfare of the farm animals in our
supply chain – and to meet the expectations of our consumers
and stakeholders – we have our Nestlé Commitment on Farm
Animal Welfare. We are committed to eliminating from our
global supply chain specific practices that are not consistent
with the internationally accepted Five Freedoms:
• Freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition;
• Freedom from fear and distress;
• Freedom from physical and thermal discomfort;
• Freedom from pain, injury and disease; and
• Freedom to express normal patterns of behaviour.
We fully support the work of the World Organisation for
Animal Health (OIE) in promoting the implementation of these
Five Freedoms in the global supply chain. Nestlé will also
support the development and implementation of sciencebased
international standards and guidelines by OIE.
Among the specific practices we have committed to
eliminating are:
• For cattle: dehorning; tail docking, disbudding and
castration without anaesthetic and analgesia; and veal
crates;
• For pigs: gestation crates; tail docking; and surgical
castration;
• For poultry and eggs: cage systems, particularly barren
cages; and rapid-growth practices with respect to the
effects on animal health and welfare; and
• For animal production systems in general: our first focus is
the responsible use of antibiotics in line with the OIE’s
guidance, and the phasing out of growth promoters.
The Nestlé Commitment on Farm Animal Welfare serves as the
basis of our Responsible Sourcing requirements on meat,
poultry and eggs and dairy-based foods and beverages. We
have a partnership with World Animal Protection to implement,
refine and strengthen our Responsible Sourcing requirements.
We aim for our suppliers to demonstrate continuous
improvement in meeting our RSG. We have been working with
a number of our suppliers to trace our animal-derived
ingredients back to farm. This includes farm-level assessments
conducted by an independent third-party audit firm, SGS, to
make sure that our requirements on farm animal health, care
and welfare are being met. Several hundred assessments have
been carried out since 2014 to ensure compliance with our
RSG, with World Animal Protection present at a number of
these visits. In 2015, we reported the findings of these
assessments in our Progress Report on Responsible Sourcing
of Dairy, Meat, Poultry & Eggs, and carried out around 360
further assessments during the year. World Animal Protection
supports Nestlé through sharing their expertise on farm animal
health, care and welfare, and training SGS auditors on animal
health and welfare matters, while we provide them with the
opportunity to engage further with suppliers and to promote
good farm animal welfare practices within the food industry.
Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare
In recent years, we have contributed to the stakeholder
consultation process on the Business Benchmark on
Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW), a global measure of
animal welfare standards in food companies supported
by World Animal Protection and Compassion in World
Farming. In 2015, Nestlé remained in the ‘Tier 3:
Established but work to be done’ ranking, indicating that
farm animal welfare is an ‘established’ part of our
business, but that there are areas for improvement.
Nestlé in society – Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2015 114