Acting on Climate Change
Our road to net zero
Tackling climate change can’t wait and neither can we.
Climate change is one of society’s greatest challenges. It is also one of the greatest risks to the future of our business. Solving it requires all of us to act with urgency.
Climate change is affecting water availability and accelerating biodiversity loss, with many communities already suffering. Solutions to the climate crisis must factor in human rights and benefit everyone by creating a more equitable, low-carbon economy.
Only 5% of our total greenhouse gases (GHGs) come from our own operations. In contrast, 95% come from our value chain, from activities like farming or shipping. That's why we're working with partners throughout our supply chain and transforming our manufacturing and packaging activities to help achieve absolute reductions in GHG emissions.
As a result of scaling up GHG reduction projects in our operations and supply chain, we have put peak carbon behind us, reducing absolute GHG emissions year-on-year even as our company continues to grow.
Net zero by 2050
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Net zero
Our path to net zero addresses three main areas:
We work closely with farmers, suppliers and communities where we operate to source our ingredients in a way that generates positive environmental and social impacts.
• Working with farmers to adopt practices that tackle climate change and enhance livelihoods.
• Motivating our suppliers around the world to join us on our journey to net zero.
• Planting 20 million trees every year for the next 10 years.
• Ensuring our suppliers of key commodities are completely deforestation-free by 2022.
Achieving net zero emissions will involve big changes to the way we make our products.
• Moving to 100% renewable electricity for all 800 Nestlé sites.
• Switching global fleet of owned or contracted vehicles to lower emission options by 2022 and to offset any remaining emissions.
Using our know-how and resources, we will transform our portfolio with products that are ‘good for you and good for the planet’.
• Lowering the impact of our recipes
• Improving how we measure and manage emissions
• Moving toward carbon neutral brands
Climate Action in our operation
Achieving net zero emissions will involve big changes – including, of course, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our operations.
Although most of our emissions come from our supply chain, our operational carbon-reduction efforts are also critical for reaching net zero.
- Transition to 100% renewable electricity - In January 2022, we successfully transitioned to utilising 100% renewable electricity for all Nestlé facilities in both East and West Malaysia, by subscribing to the Green Electricity Tariff (GET) Programme by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) by Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) respectively. The renewable energy supplied by TNB is generated by solar power plants under the Large-Scale Solar (LSS) Programme, in addition to hydropower stations and other renewable energy plants approved by the Energy Commission, while the electricity supply from SEB predominantly comprises renewable hydropower.
- Using more renewable thermal energy – Our Kuching and Chembong factory is in the midst of switching fossil fuel boilers to biofuel, expected to commission in the end of Q2 2023.
Climate Action by our brands
Nestlé has over 2000 much-loved brands, so our product portfolio is playing a key role in helping us become a net zero company by 2050.
Diets with fewer or no animal products are one of the most effective ways people can help fight climate change. Our teams are working to adapt our product portfolio as part of our Net Zero Roadmap, to reduce their environmental impact and help meet rising demand for sustainable products.
Launching plant-based brands - Good for you, good for the planet: with a growing range of plant-based alternatives to meat products like burgers and nuggets, our Harvest Gourmet brand is helping people better manage the amount of animal protein in their diets.
Adding plant-based options to our existing brands - We believe that accelerating the switch to plant-based foods will help us, and our consumers, achieve net zero by 2050. That's why, as well as great new brands, we're introducing dairy free versions of some of our most-loved MILO and NESCAFÉ beverages.
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