Protecting natural capital

Our commitment

Preserve natural capital

Why it matters

We are a business that relies on raw materials. To ensure our success and protect the planet, we must work with suppliers and farmers to help them improve their practices.

Water scarcity is a growing problem globally, while deforestation continues as areas are cleared for agricultural activities. We must make use of the tools and expertise available to us and do what we can to protect these natural resources that are essential for a sustainable supply of our raw materials.

What we are doing

In 2019, we developed a three-pronged approach to protecting natural capital, and we continue to work toward being deforestation-free (pdf, 61Kb) in our supply chain. Read more about it in our 2019 progress report.

By 2020

70% of the volume of our 15 priority categories of raw materials have been assessed against our Responsible Sourcing Standard requirements and are compliant or improvement plans to preserve natural capital are ongoing

Protect, restore and diversify: how we are protecting natural capital

Here at Nestlé, we want to ensure we are growing our business in a sustainable way, within planetary boundaries. We can do this by focusing on three actions.

Protect

Work to reduce deforestation, minimize impacts on the oceans and prevent degradation of soils.

Restore

Work with farmers to restore natural rivers and streams, replant field margins and improve soil health.

Diversify

Work with farmers to diversify crops and land use to develop more resilient farms.

Giving support to this new approach, in September 2019 we joined the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) coalition. This initiative, launched at the UN Climate Action Summit, brings together businesses from multiple sectors to drive transformational change in the food and agricultural sectors. This goal will be achieved by addressing three key areas: scaling up regenerative agricultural practices to protect soil health; developing product portfolios to boost cultivated biodiversity and agricultural resistance; and eliminating deforestation and enhancing management, restoration and protection of high-value natural ecosystems. While work will extend to 2030, we have already begun intensifying activities with farmers to address these three pillars.

Nestlé believes that protecting and restoring biodiversity is essential to safeguard food production and food security now and for the future. Nestlé has for many years worked with farmers to manage their land sustainability and will continue to lead activities enhancing biodiversity. Mark Schneider, Nestlé CEO

Monitoring deforestation in our supply chains

Since 2018, Nestlé has monitored 100% of our palm oil supply chains using Starling satellite imagery. Building on this, in 2019 we joined forces with a coalition of key palm oil producers and buyers to fund the development of the Radar Alerts for Detecting Deforestation (RADD) system. This publicly available radar-based forest monitoring system will enable companies, governments and stakeholders to monitor forests using the same information source and standards.

The development of RADD by Wageningen University and Satelligence marks a transformation in how the industry approaches deforestation in supply chains. Supporting the project is the next step in Nestlé’s commitment to having a 100% deforestation-free supply chain.