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Stakeholder engagement

We engage, listen and respond to a wide range of stakeholders on a regular basis. Through meaningful engagement, our stakeholders have helped us improve and set the priorities for our Creating Shared Value (CSV) strategy.

Engaging with stakeholders to make a bigger impact

Our global stakeholder network ranges from people we engage with regularly through our operations to those in public positions who influence our activities. They span employees, consumers, suppliers, communities, governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), shareholders, trade associations and academia.

Our annual program of stakeholder convenings and CSV Forum events provides opportunities to intensify that dialogue, building on our understanding of important societal issues. The interaction develops the capability of our people, facilitates collective action, and promotes trust and mutual respect. Outcomes from such dialogue are fed back to senior management through the Nestlé in Society Board.

We also conduct a Nestlé Stakeholder Community survey. This is an annual survey with global Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) that aims to understand evolving views on the company’s issues and reputation management.

Our stakeholder groups

Nestlé identifies the following groups as fundamental to our continuing business success:

  • Academia
  • Communities
  • Consumers and the general public
  • Customers
  • Employees and their representatives
  • Governments
  • Industry and trade associations
  • Intergovernmental organizations
  • Nongovernmental organizations
  • Reporting agencies
  • Shareholders and the financial community
  • Suppliers (including farmers and smallholders)

Engagement activities in 2018

In 2018, we did not hold a separate convening. Instead, we used the Creating Shared Value Forum in Brasilia, Brazil, as an opportunity to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, under the theme ‘Water as a driver for the Sustainable Development Goals’. Highlights from the three main panel discussions are provided below.

Panel 1:
Developing economic opportunities for young people: connections between water and job creation

Exploring the ‘water–jobs’ connection​

  • The importance of water for economic inclusion, job creation and employment.
  • Inadequate water supply and sanitation has significant implications on productivity and economic output.​
  • Water is the foundation for a healthy and productive workforce.​

Opportunities for young people in water​

  • Challenges for young people entering the workforce and the implications for business​.
  • Possibilities for the next generation to harness technology to tackle water challenges.​
  • The importance of putting youth at the center of innovative solutions​.
  • Benefits for business and society when public and private sectors invest in and support youth.​

Panel 2:
Creating Shared Value (CSV) across water, food security and childhood nutrition

Opportunities for water stewardship to solve health and nutrition challenges​

  • The importance of focusing on nutrition rather than hunger. ​
  • Managing water to produce maximum nutrition per drop, not calories per drop.​

​Links between water and food security​

  • Food can be produced without land, but not without water.​
  • The transition to plant-based diets benefits business and water stewardship.​

Connections between water and the SDGs

  • The SDGs drive water management, as well as vice versa.​
  • Financial investment must be scaled to meet the SDGs especially regarding water.​

Panel 3:
Caring for water, the value of water stewardship

Building blocks for collective action on water stewardship​

  • Identified barriers that need to be overcome and opportunities to scale the impact of partnerships​.
  • Involving local stakeholders in collective action and empowering communities to develop solutions.​
  • The importance of taking a landscape approach to water management​.

​Projects based on collective action, and building capacity and consensus on the ground​

  • Manos al Agua, Colombia: empowering coffee farming communities by linking water stewardship and rural livelihoods​.
  • Addis Ababa University and Nestlé: developing an eco-city that will enhance water security, improve local livelihoods and promote youth employment.​

Download our Creating Shared Value report

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