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
G4-15
Other working groups
We also play an active role in a wide range of specific
initiatives such as:
• Task Force on UN-Business Partnerships;
• Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative;
• UNGC Advisory Group on Supply Chain Sustainability;
• UNGC CEO Water Mandate;
• UNGC Food and Agriculture Business Principles;
• UNGC Human Rights and Labour Working Group;
• UNGC Anti-Corruption Working Group;
• Business for the Rule of Law Steering Group and
Working Group;
• Caring for Climate;
• Women’s Empowerment Principles; and
• Global Business Coalition for Education.
UNGC LEAD: post-2015
development agenda
Since their launch in 2000 and throughout the 15 years of their
implementation, Nestlé sought to help attain the UN MDGs,
regarding them as highly important objectives for improving
the state of the world. At that time, we took an introspective
look at what a company like Nestlé could do to meet this
benchmark to improve the quality of life of millions of people.
In 2006, we became one of the few companies to specifically
report on how our business and 160+ collaborative
programmes with local stakeholders contributed to the MDGs.
Four years later, we produced a second MDG report on how
we were leveraging the nature and scope of our business to
help farmers improve incomes, bring greater access to
nutritious and safer food, raise the nutritional profile of our
products, address micronutrient deficiencies and open up
economic opportunities for women and youth. We are
currently deepening these efforts and commitments to answer
the call to action made by the SDGs.
In the now post-2015 era, where the world has collectively
set development priorities in the form of 17 SDGs, Nestlé has
reinstated its commitment to strengthening its actions in order
to drive positive and sustained change. The universal and
transformative SDG agenda is underpinned by rights, and with
people and the planet at the centre. We believe doing well as a
business and benefiting society can be simultaneously
achieved and have been actively involved in the UNGC LEAD’s
activities to create a roadmap for integrated sustainability.
LEAD companies, such as ourselves, contributed to both
the formulation of post-2015 objectives and the design of a
supporting architecture for the realisation of related goals.
Nestlé was an active member of the LEAD task force working
on the post-2015 development agenda. We provided input into
different outcome documents, such as the SDG Compass and
the Poverty Footprint. Both management tools aim to assist
companies seeking to understand the linkages between
business and people in their value chains, assess their impact,
augment their goal-setting practices and align their businesses
with the SDGs.
We believe that business can play an important role in
helping to addressing global sustainable development
challenges. The post-2015 agenda provided a not-to-miss
opportunity to take part in global debates and conversations
on how enterprises such as Nestlé can best align their
ambitions to make the SDGs a reality. This process also
stressed the importance of consolidating LEAD as the private
sector gateway into the UN system for business to contribute
to the achievement of the SDGs and of positioning
sustainability and long-term thinking as an investment driver
for mainstream investors.
In addition, we actively participated and contributed to the
post-2015 agenda through these various platforms:
• As part of the Swiss contribution to the post-2015 agenda,
we helped elaborate the Swiss position;
• Participated in a Human Rights and Labour Working Group
conference where we discussed ‘How to Make Decent
Work a Key Driver for Development’ in the post-2015 era;
• Presented the linkages between CSV and the SDGs during a
high-level roundtable discussion among business,
government, civil society and UN leaders, focused on SDG
implementation during the UN Private Sector Forum (26
September 2015);
• Took part in a series of interactive dialogues at the UN
Summit on Post-2015 (25–27 September 2015) to address
how to deliver on a revitalised global partnership; and
• Made a call for coordinated action by governments,
companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to
address climate change and safeguard water resources at
the Global Compact +15: Business as a Force for Good
event in New York, USA.
Please see below for a more detailed account of our activities
with individual initiatives.
UNGC LEAD: Task Force on
UN-Business Partnerships
Nestlé is active in the LEAD Task Force on UN-Business
Partnerships, which seeks to strengthen the UN system to
engage business to address global developmental challenges,
by enhancing existing partnerships between the UN and the
private sector, and building new ones. In 2015, the initiative
published a handbook describing the best practices of private
sector engagement with the UN system.
UNGC LEAD: realising long-term value
for companies and investors
This project aims to improve the ability of businesses to
analyse how sustainable strategies translate to financial value,
and to communicate these results more effectively. As part of
the working group, we are continuing our contributions to the
work streams on Building Sustainable Capital Markets and
Shaping the Future of Corporate Reporting, and support the
Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative.
Nestlé in society – Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2015 37