Nestlé

Lobbying
Nestlé discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates. The company also discloses an annual review of the advocacy activities it has undertaken.

Stakeholder engagement
Nestlé discloses the channels it uses to engage with stakeholders, the issues raised during such activities, and the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement, for each stakeholder group. Moreover, its stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, nutrition, and social areas.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Nestlé discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. The company has established group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain and reports consistently against all its targets. Moreover, Nestlé provides evidence of linking performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Nestlé has a commitment to ensure zero conversion, and discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains. Furthermore, the company is committed to restoring ecosystems, and it discloses details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers. Finally, it has a time-bound target for its ecosystem restoration activities.

GHG emissions
Nestlé discloses a target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions of 20% by 2025 from baseline year 2018 and aims to reduce its scope 3 emissions by 20% by 2025 and 50% by 2050 from baseline year 2018. The company reports progress against all of its targets. Moreover, the targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
Nestlé provides evidence to apply a mitigation hierarchy approach to its biodiversity-related targets

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Nestlé discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices. The company has a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and reports progress against it.

Solid and air pollution
Nestlé demonstrates commitment, partakes in activities and discloses quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, including the proportion of recycled plastic in its packaging. It has also set a target to reduce the use of virgin plastic, and reports progress against it.

Water
Nestlé discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality, and it regularly reports on water pollution. Furthermore, the company has a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal in its own operations and reports progress against the target. The company reports on water withdrawal for its own operations in water-stressed areas, and engages with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. Furthermore, it has a commitment to respect the right to water, and discloses its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations. The company works with its business relationships to improve their practices regarding access to water and sanitation.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Nestlé is committed to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, the company discloses its processes to identify and recognise the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights, and describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Nestlé is committed to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Act ethically
Nestléy discloses a public commitment to protect personal data and has a global tax strategy. Furthermore, the company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a policy statement. Also, it has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. Additionally, it requires third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying engagement policy, and contracted third parties are required to sign a written agreement stating clear objectives and the desired outcome.

Provide and promote decent work
Nestlé has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and expects its business relationships to do so. The company states that it takes actions to improve and promote OHS practices in its supply chain. Also, it has various programmes to help improve the safety and health of workers in our agricultural supply chains.
Furthermore, the company discloses that its Living Wage Program helps the organisation to ensure that all its employees worldwide, including temporary workers, earn a living wage. Also, it discloses that it works with its partner Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) to define the living wage threshold in each country where it operate. Additionally, it describes how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. Moreover, the company has a public expectation that its business relationships shall not require workers to work more than 48 hours in a regular work week or 60 hours including overtime.
The company reports that 56.3% its total employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements and it also discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. Lastly, the company has been a signatory of Women’s Empowerment Principles since 17 May 2013 and has 33.33 women on the board.

Respect human rights
Nestlé has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights as well as it expects its suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. Moreover, the company describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations and supply chain. Additionally, it describes its process for assessing its human rights risks and discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues and has a global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate salient human rights issues. It also describes how its global system applies to its supply chain. Furthermore, it discloses the categories of stakeholders as farmers, workers, communities, its employees, on-site contractors and consumers whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. Lastly, The company indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets and to report (potential) misalignments.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company states that the board of directors has expertise in nutrition, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics including climate, water, soil health, social inclusion, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
While the company has a target to achieve conversion-free supply chains, certification models are not specified so there is no guarantee that it is DCF-aligned.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company has taken steps to identify, monitor, and measure biodiversity impacts in its supply chain, aiming to establish a baseline for action and promote regenerative agriculture, it still has the opportunity to assess and disclose its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations and upstream activities. Additionally, the company can further assess and disclose its dependencies on nature within its own operations and those of its upstream business relationships, including the methodology and results of these assessments.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
While the company has undertaken commendable initiatives such as restoring forests in Beki and Bossematie and recognizing the significance of red frogs in Montseny Natural Park, there remains an opportunity to further its commitment. Specifically, enhancing transparency by detailing species populations in proximity to its operations, disclosing locations close to vital biodiversity areas, and revealing supplier sites near key biodiversity zones could strengthen its position. Additionally, expanding on the species present in its business relationships, especially suppliers, and clarifying the conservation status of species in its direct vicinities using recognized lists could amplify its biodiversity conservation stance.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company has an opportunity to disclose all its inputs according to an international standard. Additionally, the company does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance.

Solid and air pollution
The company should commit to avoid developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties, as well as work on reducing the production of hazardous substances and waste. It has an opportunity to report on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants and disclose time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain. While the company reports some data on waste and disposal, it has an opportunity to report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal.

Water
The company has an opportunity to set targets to reduce water pollution.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose its processes to identify and recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights or describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company discloses that all of its operational sites are viewed through the CARE Program which validates bribery and corruption prevention and training. However, it could describe the process to identify its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. The company expects its supplier to conduct the business without bribery, corruption, or any type of fraudulent behaviour. However, it could include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships.
Furthermore, the company has a publicly available policy stating that it has adopted a general policy prohibiting its affiliates from making political contributions to political parties or candidates. Moreover, while it states that it has adopted a policy not to make political contributions except for the parent company in its country of origin, it could disclose whether these are made only by exception, and the criteria for making them. Lastly, the company discloses some information regarding its lobbying expenditures but it could disclose its expenditures in all locations where it carries out lobbying activities or specify it only does so in specific countries or regions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose time-bound targets on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Furthermore, it discloses that it has been committed to providing equal pay for equal work since 2019 and that no systemic equal pay gap was found within the group according to the global equal pay review results. However, it could disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category, by significant locations of operation.