Stakeholder engagement to create shared value

When we listen, we improve.

That is why we regularly engage with and respond to a wide range of stakeholders at a local, regional, national and international level, to set the priorities for our Creating Shared Value strategy and support our intention to advance regenerative food systems at scale.

We seek experts and advocates to strengthen our business

Our global stakeholder network consists of the people our operations impact and those who influence our activities.

Stakeholder meetings, workshops and other events help us deepen dialogue and develop our understanding of important societal issues. These interactions help our teams build their capabilities, facilitate collective action, and promote trust and mutual respect.

We identify the following groups as fundamental to our continuing business success:

Academia
Communities
Consumers and the general public
Civil society organizations
Customers
Employees and their representatives
Governments
Industry and trade associations
Intergovernmental organizations
Non-governmental organizations
Rating agencies
Shareholders and the financial community
Suppliers (including farmers and smallholders)

We engage with stakeholders to stay on top of issues

Engaging with stakeholders is important to setting priorities for our Creating Shared Value strategy. Their feedback informs our approach to activities, reporting and disclosure, and underpins our materiality assessment process.

We also consult regularly with our CSV Council, an external advisory council formed in 2009. The Council provides advice to the Executive Board to ensure the sound development of our sustainability strategy and the positive social and economic impact of the Creating Shared Value strategy. It has no formal governance role.

Our key topics for stakeholder engagement

We engage with our stakeholders through a variety of platforms and on a range of topics.

Climate change

We support progressive climate action across all economic sectors, aligning our strategy with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Through our support and participation in efforts by the Business for Nature and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), UN FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Investment initiative, One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B), and others, we remain proactive and transparent about our commitment to climate action.

Packaging

For plastic packaging designed for recycling systems, we achieved 87.5% of our plastic packaging designed for recycling systems and continue to work on improving packaging recyclability or reusability in 2025. Toward our reduction in virgin plastics, we achieved 28% reduction in our use of virgin plastics compared with our 2018 baseline.

Working alongside partners, to develop new solutions is one of the ways in which we are trying to make this happen.

Key terms explained

Packaging Designed for Recycling (D4R)
Refers to packaging materials and formats which are compliant with our Negative List and aligned with the Golden Design Rules.

Recyclable
As defined in the Ellen McArthur Foundation reporting guideline definitions, a packaging or packaging component is recyclable if it is successfully post-consumer collected, sorted and recycled with a recycling rate of 30% in multiple regions, collectively representing more than 400 million inhabitants.

Reusable
Following ISO 18603, reusable is the characteristic of a product or packaging that has been conceived and designed to accomplish within its lifecycle a certain number of trips, rotations or uses for the same purpose for which it was conceived. The weight of reusable packaging is defined by the total weight of reusable packaging, divided by the number of expected rotations over the entire life of the package.

Biodiversity

Working closely with a team from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Nespresso has worked on a biodiversity performance framework to identify species, habitats and related ecosystems services that are priorities for company actions across coffee landscapes.

Nutrition

We believe collective action is key to improving consumer awareness of the nutritional profiles of foods and to expanding access to affordable nutrition.

We are developing and participating in several initiatives to advance consumer nutrition and continue to advocate for industry-wide action.

Water

Nestlé has been a member of the 2030 Water Resources Group (2030 WRG) consortium from the start. The Consortium secures investments for scalable, impactful solutions that strengthen global water security.

Since 2020, we have been part of the CEO Water Mandate, a UN Global Compact initiative that unites business leaders on water, sanitation and Sustainable Development Goals.

Responsible sourcing

Many of the environmental and social challenges that we face in our agricultural supply chains require long-term interventions and multi-stakeholder collaboration to tackle root causes and have greater impact.

To drive collective action, we participate in a number of industry and multi-stakeholder platforms, such as the Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive and Human Rights Coalitions of Action or the Institute for Human Rights and Business’s Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment.

Responsible sourcing is defined by our Nestlé Responsible Sourcing Core Requirements (pdf, 2Mb), which sets out the standard for minimum environmental, social and governance expectations that apply to our supply chains.

Raw materials

Nestlé needs YOUth

Through the Global Alliance for YOUth, we are driving and promoting positive impact for young people among our private sector partners.

We are focusing on key themes such as resilience and agility, as well as investigating the important role of digital inclusion in youth opportunities. In 2023, we marked 10 years of the Nestlé needs YOUth program (pdf, 6Mb).