Nestlé

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
In its 2021 Net Zero Roadmap, Nestlé sets targets to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050. These targets are in line with a 1.5-degree trajectory, and the company reports on emissions annually.

Food loss and waste
As a member of the World Resource Institute’s Champions 12.3, Nestlé set 2020 targets to reduce food loss and waste and has achieved these. The company measures its food waste and demonstrates year-on-year reductions. In addition, Nestlé works with farmers to prevent food loss and preserve excess food. New targets have not yet been disclosed.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
In its 2021 Net Zero Roadmap, Nestlé sets targets to increase sourcing through regenerative agricultural methods for its key ingredients to 20% in 2025 and 50% in 2030, demonstrating a commitment to improved soil health and agrobiodiversity. However, no reporting on the percentage of key ingredients sourced through regenerative agricultural methods was found in the public domain.

Plastic use and packaging waste
Nestlé has set a target to achieve 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025 and provides quantitative reporting demonstrating progress against this target. Through collaborations with value chain partners, the company also addresses packaging waste management and marine littering in different markets.

Workforce nutrition
Through offering healthy meal options in 96% of the company’s canteens, Nestlé seeks to positively contribute to the nutrition of its workforce. Moreover, the company offers breastfeeding support through its parental support policy and has a programme that covers nutritional education for its employees.

Food safety
Nestlé demonstrates that it provides safe food to consumers by complying with relevant regulations and implementing hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) systems. In addition, 100% of the company’s operations and 85% of suppliers have achieved certification to a food safety scheme recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative. The company can further improve by striving for 100% of its supply chain to attain certification.

Clear and transparent labelling
Nestlé commits to providing transparent nutritional information and supports and implements voluntary front-of-pack labelling. The company discloses that 98.3% of its sales come from products with the Nestlé Nutritional Compass Labelling. While this labelling carries nutritional information, it is not necessarily displayed on the front of packaging, which is the most easily visible place for consumers.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
Nestlé recognises that women workers often face higher occupational health risks in its supply chain and has gathered data to better understand these risks. In this regard, it requires suppliers to recognise the unique position and needs of women and to tailor interventions based on their needs. Moreover, the company provides examples of projects with suppliers to address the health and safety of vulnerable workers in its supply chain. While the company demonstrates leading practice compared to its peers on this topic, there is an opportunity for Nestlé to increase disclosure on how it assesses and integrates occupational health risks to other vulnerable groups such as migrant, temporary, and young workers.

Child labour
Nestlé forbids the use of child labour in its operations and supply chain and requires suppliers of high-risk commodities to maintain documentation to verify the age of workers. Through third-party audits for suppliers as well as internal audits, the company monitors for the presence of child labour throughout its value chain. Nestlé also demonstrates it works with its suppliers to eliminate child labour, for example by offering education and assistance with farm work. While Nestlé provides quantitative reporting on its efforts to eliminate child labour, it is still expanding the scope of this reporting and the data does not yet demonstrate progress.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Nestlé’s governance system includes board-level responsibility and accountability for its sustainable development targets. To facilitate effective implementation of the sustainability strategy, remuneration for executives is linked to the company´s sustainability performance. However, the company could further strengthen its performance by demonstrating that this executive remuneration is linked to topics across all three benchmark dimensions of environment, nutrition and social inclusion.

Sustainable development strategy
Nestlé’s sustainability strategy includes 2030 objectives relating to the environment, nutrition and social inclusion. The company set specific, measurable targets for 2020 under each objective and reports on progress annually. However, it can further improve by disclosing long-term targets, aiming for 2030 and beyond, for each of its objectives as part of its sustainability strategy.

Stakeholder engagement
Nestlé demonstrates that it engages with a diverse group of stakeholders through several activities and discloses a list of key stakeholder groups and issues raised with them. Results from stakeholder activities are integrated into Nestlé’s sustainability strategy. While the company provides a definition of stakeholders, it has an opportunity to provide further information on how it identifies which stakeholders to engage with.

Antibiotic use and growth-promoting substances
Nestlé’s Commitment on Farm Animal Welfare includes a commitment to use antibiotics responsibly and phase out growth promotors. However, the company does not disclose the mechanisms involved to implement this policy, such as external auditing practices or verification processes.

Protein diversification
While Nestlé provides some evidence of diversifying its protein portfolio, such as through developing plant-based alternatives for milk and tuna, it does not disclose any time-bound targets to increase the production or consumption of alternative proteins such as plant-based protein, dairy alternatives or cell-based meat.

Availability of healthy foods
Nestlé demonstrates that it is improving the nutritional quality of its foods by reducing salt, sugar and fat and increasing beneficial properties such as fibre and calcium. Moreover, the company discloses the nutritional profiling system that supports its product (re)formulation activities. While Nestlé reports on the proportion of products that meet its nutritional profiling criteria, it has an opportunity to set a target to increase the share of products that meet these criteria.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
Nestlé provides evidence of activities to increase the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods, with a focus on fortified foods. While the company has set targets to expand its fortified portfolio and reach more people with fortified foods, it does not disclose a target to improve the affordability and accessibility of healthy foods for vulnerable populations.

Responsible marketing
Nestlé has a responsible marketing policy that addresses marketing to children, specifying that all products marketed to children between 6 and 12 must meet the company’s nutritional guidelines. Nestlé demonstrates that it has increased expenditure on promoting products that support healthy lifestyles but does not disclose which share of its total marketing budget is spent on promoting healthy foods. While the company discloses evidence of marketing activities to promote healthy eating habits, it has an opportunity to share evidence of marketing activities to promote healthy foods.

Land rights
Nestlé requires its suppliers to recognise and respect the legitimate tenure rights related to the ownership and use of land of local communities and provides a grievance mechanism that is available to external individuals and communities. However, the company does not publicly provide information on its remediation process for land right issues in its supply chain.

Forced labour
In both its own operations and supply chain, Nestlé forbids the use of forced labour and prohibits the retention of workers’ documents and restriction of workers’ freedom of movement. In addition, the company states that workers have the right to join or form trade unions and bargain collectively without discrimination or intimidation and requires its suppliers to abide by the same standards. Nestlé has an opportunity to increase disclosure on how it monitors for the presence of forced labour in its operations and supply chain.

Living wage
Through its three-year Living Wage project, Nestlé completed a global exercise to validate that all employees in its operations are paid a living wage. While the company expects its suppliers to pay their workers a living wage and supports this practice in its supply chain through pilot projects, this does not equate to a requirement for suppliers to pay workers a living wage. Further, the company does not disclose a target to pay a living wage across its supply chain.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
Nestlé is committed to supporting the economic resilience of farmers and provides examples of support activities, such as the training of farmers and promotion of diversification in its Nescafé Plan. While the company reports on the impact of some of these activities, it can improve by demonstrating it is measuring the impact of all its activities and reporting these externally.

Nestlé demonstrates taking responsibility in respecting human rights. The company has a commitment to respecting human rights and ILO core labour rights in its operation, and expects suppliers to respect ILO core labour rights. Moreover, Nestlé discloses a human rights due diligence process that includes the identification, assessment, and integration of salient human rights risks in its operations and supply chain. As part of this process, the company provides grievance mechanisms that are accessible for employees and external stakeholders such as communities and demonstrates how it engages with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

Nestlé discloses on the coverage of collective bargaining agreements in its own operations as well as how it works to support freedom of association and collective bargaining in its supply chain. The company commits to protecting the health and safety of its workers and places health and safety expectations on its supply chain partners but can strengthen its monitoring and quantitative reporting on this topic. Nestlé has also set a target to pay a living wage in its operations and supports the payment of a living wage in its supply chain but does not disclose information on how it determines living wages. Nestlé can further improve its commitments related to working hours and increase disclosure on diversity in its workforce and gender pay gaps.

Nestlé commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on its use. The company has publicly available policies setting out its global approach to tax, lobbying and political engagement, and prohibiting bribery and corruption. However, the company lacks disclosure on lobbying and tax expenses, as well as on how it prohibits corruption and bribery in its relations with third parties.