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-EN27, G4-EN31
Mandatory rating system
We use a mandatory environmental rating system for all new
product and process developments. It uses a five-point scale
to evaluate potential impacts, both negative and positive, and
is designed to inform our decision-making at the earliest
possible stage – well before a project goes into development.
Environmental hotspots for
dehydrated culinary products
All the product categories within our Food business unit have
undergone LCAs, with hotspots identified and addressed.
As an example, the main hotspots in our core dehydrated
culinary category (including dehydrated soups, sauces,
bouillons and seasonings) are in the agricultural and
consumption stages. Almost half the GHG emissions (49%)
and 85% of the water impact occur during the agriculture
stage, while consumption and product use are responsible for
32% of the GHG emissions and 11% of the water use.
To address these issues, we are working to improve the
agricultural practices of our direct suppliers through our
Responsible Sourcing programme. We also encourage
consumers to prepare and use our products efficiently, by
using as little water and energy as possible, minimising food
waste through appropriate portion sizes and recycling product
packaging whenever feasible.
Promoting access to data
Our objective
By 2017 – Further enlarge the scope of our databases on
agricultural raw materials used in EcodEX.
To make informed decisions, our teams require accurate data,
and we are continuing to work with external collaborators to
develop databases that benefit not only Nestlé but the LCA
community at large. In particular, we are focusing on enlarging
the scope of the input data on agricultural raw materials, as they
constitute the main environmental impact of many products.
For example, we are continuing to develop and improve
EcodEX through a collaboration with the Montreal-based
International Reference Centre for the Life Cycle of Products,
Processes and Services (CIRAIG). We are currently working on
incorporating information on statistical uncertainty into
EcodEX and regionalising life-cycle inventory datasets for
water flows and land use. We are also co-sponsoring the
development of a World Food LCA Database, coordinated by
LCA consultancy Quantis and 11 other partners.
During 2015, more than 750 critically reviewed datasets
were added to EcodEX. Nestlé is also funding further data
development, in collaboration with Quantis, to focus on
ingredients not yet considered in other major databases.
To stay at the forefront of LCA and ecodesign, we are
continuing to promote Sustainability by Design and provide
our product development teams with opportunities for
continuous learning and knowledge sharing. In addition to
staff at our 40 R&D centres disseminating their expertise
throughout our R&D community and across our operations,
the experts in our global Sustainability by Design Network are
responsible for building sustainability into the earliest phase of
product development.
To evaluate the opportunity to extend our sustainability
analyses beyond just environmental factors, we have been
collaborating with global science company DSM to trial tools
that will conduct integrated assessments of environmental,
social and health impacts. The test case was a fortified milk
product in the Asian market. The project has resulted in new
insights and recommendations for using sustainability in
innovation decision-making and communication, and
opportunities to develop products with favourable
environmental, social and health impacts.
Piloting the EU Product
Environmental Footprint
Category Rules
In 2014, the European Commission launched a three-year pilot
to develop a common environmental footprint methodology for
25 product categories and two business sectors. Nestlé was
selected to co-lead the development of Product Environmental
Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) in three areas: Nestlé Waters
for packaged water; Nespresso and Nescafé for coffee; and
Nestlé Purina for pet food.
This project is designed to establish and validate an open
and transparent multi-stakeholder process for developing
PEFCRs across all categories, including performance
benchmarks for compliance and verification systems, and for
testing communication channels.
The EU Environmental Footprint Steering Committee
approved the scope and definition of representative products
in the three product categories co-led by Nestlé. The rules that
eventually result from these pilots will be adopted by all
stakeholders to assess the environmental performance of their
products. Next year, we will test different communication
vehicles for our products.
This is a major milestone in the development of a
common environmental footprint methodology per
product category. Nestlé is committed to the
systematic assessment and optimisation of
environmental impacts in the design of new and
renovated products.”
Pascal Gréverath, Assistant Vice-President –
Environmental Sustainability, Nestlé
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