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Nestlé tackles climate change: down to zero by 2050

Nestlé tackles climate change: down to zero by 2050

Nestlé has committed to halve its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 to reach net zero by 2050 at its sites all over the world, including its 25 factories and operations across the value chain in the 19 countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The company will invest USD 3.5 billion globally over the next five years to accelerate its net zero climate work, including USD 1.35 billion to spark regenerative agriculture across its supply chain. 

As a signatory of the UN ‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C’ pledge, Nestlé is one of the first companies to share its detailed time-bound plan.

“We have reduced overall greenhouse gas emissions in our regional factories by nearly 60% over the last decade,” said Remy Ejel, Nestlé Chairman & CEO in the Middle East and North Africa. “We are committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 – in line with our global strategy.”

Net zero means that Nestlé will drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from farm to fork, while removing remaining emissions from the atmosphere with projects storing carbon in soils and trees. This is vital because climate change poses a risk to the future of food, while food production and consumption are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Global actions focus on supporting farmers and suppliers to advance regenerative agriculture, planting hundreds of millions of trees within the next ten years, completing the company’s transition to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2025, and addressing emissions in logistics and transport.

Regenerative Agriculture

More than two thirds of Nestlé’s emissions come from the production of agricultural ingredients it uses. To tackle this, Nestlé will work with its suppliers to change the way food is produced. In practice, Nestlé focuses on healthy soils, net zero dairy farms, and sustainably sourced cocoa and coffee.

By 2025, 100% of the cocoa and coffee Nestlé uses will be sustainably sourced. For this, Nestlé is cooperating with farmers to avoid deforestation and rolling out an ambitious reforestation plan. The company has committed to plant at least 20 million trees a year until 2030 in the areas where it sources ingredients.

In Morocco’s El Jadida factory, Nestlé sources more than 60,000 tons of raw milk per year directly from more than 6,000 small rural farms of various sizes – ranging from two-cow to more than 400-cow farms in the Doukkala region.

Through its “Model Village” milk collection program, the company helps farmers and future generations of farmers enhance safety, quality, quantity, sustainable breeding practices, water conservation, and general environmental management through technical and competencies training. This program is at the core of Nestlé’s support of the Moroccan government’s agricultural strategy “Generation Green 2020-2030.”

Rethinking manufacturing

Over the last decade, Nestlé has achieved nearly 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per ton of product across the Middle East and North Africa’s 25 food, beverage, and water manufacturing sites, thus overachieving its set commitment of 35% reduction by 2020. It also achieved zero waste for disposal at its food manufacturing sites and distribution centers in the region.

Nestlé is committed to achieving 100% renewable electricity at its 800 global sites by 2025. Actions towards that end include Nestlé’s Al Maha Factory in Dubai South housing 20,000 PV panels, generating 7.2GWh of electricity and eliminating 4.5 million kilograms of CO2 per year. The company’s solar plant installation at its water factory in Al Husseiniya in southern Jordan also generates enough power to supply 40 percent of the site’s current energy demand, saving 1,300 tons of CO2 per year.

Logistics

Nestlé achieved 25% reduction in CO2 emissions in logistics and supply chain activities across the MENA region over the past three years, through initiatives that include increasing truck capacity by 10% for transport from UAE factories; using Artificial Intelligence to track & trace its transportation fleet to reduce CO2 emissions by 7%; reducing the number of kilometers driven by more than 10% across key countries in the

region; and launching the CHEP pallet ‘share and reuse’ business model in UAE factories to reduce CO2 emissions across the supply chain.

Packaging 

Nestlé’s global commitment is to have 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025. This will also entail that none of its packaging, plastics included, ends up in landfills or as litter.

The company is also playing an active role in developing plastics collection, sorting and recycling schemes across the world, through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) actions that are contributing to industry coalitions that aim to create circular economies within countries, recycling and reusing in a manner that creates shared value for all involved.

In the MENA region, Nestlé is part of a government-endorsed coalition in Abu Dhabi, The Coalition CIRCLE (Coalition of Innovation in Recycling towards a Closed Loop Economy), comprised of NGOs, global and local private companies, which has committed to tackling the issue of packaging waste pollution.

In 2020, Nestlé also launched its “DORNA” initiative in Cairo to boost recycling of plastic packaging material and improve its ecosystem in Egypt. In collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Environment, CID Consulting, and PayMob, the initiative aims to incentivize waste collectors as they are the most essential pillar of the value chain.

 “We cannot achieve net zero alone,” said Ejel. “We will continue working closely with farmers, suppliers, industry, employees, consumers, governments, NGOs and communities where we operate, to forge new and deeper levels of engagement on climate issues.”

For more information, please contact:

Layal Dalal, Nestlé Media Relations Manager, Middle East and North Africa

Email: [email protected]

About Nestlé Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Nestlé’s heritage in the Middle East and North Africa goes back over 100 years with the sale of the first Infant Cereals in Egypt. Today, Nestlé operates 25 Food & Beverage factories across the 19 c

countries of the MENA region, and provides direct employment to more than 15,000 people who are all committed to Nestlé’s purpose of unlocking the power of food to enhance the quality of life for everyone, today and for generations to come. Nestlé MENA also provides indirect employment across the region to several thousand more.

The Nestlé portfolio in the region currently exceeds 60 innovative product brands in a wide range of categories: Dairy, Infant Nutrition, Coffee and Creamers, Confectionery, Bottled Water, Breakfast Cereals, Culinary products, Health Science, and Pet Care, among others. Nestlé NIDO, Nestlé CERELAC, Nestlé NAN, S-26, PROGRESS, NESCAFÉ, NESPRESSO, Bonjorno Café, Coffee-mate, KitKat, MAGGI, Nestlé FITNESS, Nestlé Grain d’Or, Nestlé Pure Life, OPTIFAST, and PURINA Friskies are just some of the brands available in the Middle East and North Africa.

To know more, you can visit: 

Website: www.nestle-mena.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NestleMiddleeastNorthafrica
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nestleme
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NestléMENA