The food industry does not emit as much CO2 as other sectors such as glass making and mining. Furthermore, Nestlé’s focus on energy reduction, for example in manufacturing and transportation, has had consistently positive effects on reducing overall air emissions. Energy management, including the conversion of heating units from heavy fuel to natural gas, has also contributed to reducing air emissions.
As a result, the air acidification potential from Nestlé manufacturing operations, measured in sulfur oxide (SOx) equivalents, reduced significantly by 27% between 2002 and 2006. Since 1998, it has reduced by 63% per tonne of product.
Climate Change
Since the start of the negotiations leading to the Kyoto protocol 
in 1997, the CO2 emissions from our manufacturing sites were reduced by 14%. During the same period, our production volume has almost doubled to 38.24 million tonnes, resulting in a GHG eco-efficiency improvement of 56%. See Environmental Perfomance Indicators for further details.
Along with over 2000 of the world’s largest companies, Nestlé participates in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), in order to share our strategy and results. This is part of our ongoing effort to enable our performance to be benchmarked and drive further improvements. We are also among a small number of companies participating in a CDP trial to raise awareness among suppliers. We are leading this pilot in our own supply chain to inspire performance improvements and help address the issue of efficiency and energy savings beyond our own operations.
Insight Investment *, the asset manager of major institutional investor HBOS Group, gave a 100% score to Nestlé for governance of carbon issues. We have also been identified as the most carbon-efficient company among the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 food products companies, on the basis of direct GHG emissions per revenue (Merrill Lynch, Carbon Leaders: Quality Win-Win Stocks, 31 August 2007).
* Nestle’s overall score in the Insight Carbon Assessment was 57%.
For further information about Nestlé's strategy on climate change and the environment read this year's answers to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP5) Greenhouse Emissions Questionnaire. The Carbon Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit organization that facilitates dialog, through quality information, between shareholders and corporations in order to discuss rational responses to climate change.
Nestlé is also among 150 companies calling for a comprehensive, legally binding
UN framework to tackle climate change, in a communiqué published by The Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group in December 2007. Read more in the News section.
Co-generation Plants
Co-generation plants that produce both electricity and steam at the same time lead to improved efficiency compared with conventional power plants, and reduce the amount of fuel consumed and therefore air emissions. Nestlé’s use of co-generation technology has resulted in impressive reductions of CO2 as well as SOx and NOx.
Methane recovery (methanisation)
We increasingly recover methane gas generated from our water treatment plants and we use it as a fuel. In our Shimada factory in Japan, for example, this has resulted in a 38% reduction in
GHG emissions.
Replacement of Ozone Depleting Substances
Many of Nestlé’s manufacturing processes depend on refrigeration and air conditioning that require refrigerants. The Company’s program to replace CFCs and HCFCs by environmentally neutral ammonia and carbon dioxide in industrial installations started in 1986. As a result of this program, emissions of ozone depleting substances per tonne of product have been reduced by 99%. (see further details in Refrigeration).