Nespresso to Invest CHF 500 Million into 2020 Sustainability Strategy

August 27, 2014 /3BL Media/ - Nespresso will invest CHF 500 million over the next six years toward an ambitious strategy to accelerate the company’s sustainability focus and introduce several major new initiatives that will create significant benefits for the business, society and the environment.

“Today, we set our ambition of providing the highest quality and most sustainable portioned coffee worldwide,” said Jean-Marc Duvoisin, CEO Nestlé Nespresso S.A.

Entitled The Positive Cup, the strategy is based on the Nestlé approach to Creating Shared Value (CSV) and builds upon the significant steps that Nespresso has already taken over the last five years to improve farmer welfare and drive environmental sustainability in coffee sourcing and consumption. Read about the sustainability targets achieved by Nespresso in 2013.

“Our sustainability approach has always been designed to do more than simply minimise impacts,” said Jean-Marc Duvoisin “The development of even more innovative programs with our partners further demonstrates our commitment to creating shared value and generating positive impacts for all stakeholders across the entire value chain. This CHF 500 million investment significantly builds on our current sustainability investment to ensure the long-term success of our business model.”

Part of the CHF 500 million investment will be used to establish a new Sustainable Development Fund, which will play a key role to in channelling resources into specific sustainability projects.

Ambitious commitments by 2020

With The Positive Cup, Nespresso has set ambitious sustainability targets to meet by 2020. Focused on the areas of coffee sourcing and social welfare; aluminium sourcing, use and disposal; and resilience to climate change, Nespresso commits to:

100% sustainably sourced coffee

• Source 100% of its permanent range of Grand Cru coffees sustainably through the Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program
• Assist farmers to achieve high certification standards (in water management, biodiversity and fair treatment of workers, for example) through our long-term partner Rainforest Alliance (since 2003) and Fairtrade.
• Pursue innovative solutions to farmer welfare, including the expansion of the AAA Farmer Future Program initially through a retirement fund for farmers in Colombia.

“This cutting-edge approach will help us further build on the real impact we together are having on the ground in farming communities, driving economic and environmental benefits for over 60,000 farmers who are part of the AAA Program,” said Tensie Whelan, President of the Rainforest Alliance.

The expansion of the AAA Program in Africa plays a key role in allowing the company to source 100% of its coffee from the AAA Program. To that end, Nespresso will invest CHF 15 million in Kenya and Ethiopia. Nespresso also plans to revive high quality coffee production in South Sudan as part of this investment.

100% sustainably managed aluminium

• Expand the capacity to collect used aluminium capsules to 100% wherever the company does business and increase recycling rates.
• Recycle Nespresso capsules collected by the company into new Nespresso capsules each time it makes sense environmentally, such as in the UK, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria and Italy.
• Source 100% of virgin aluminium capsule material compliant with the new Aluminium Stewardship Initiative standard, being developed within a multi-stakeholder programme led by the IUCN.

“We are pleased to be able to work with Nespresso to foster greater sustainability and transparency throughout the aluminium value chain,“ said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of IUCN. “The forward looking approach that the company is taking to further expand its recycling solutions and encourage consumers to recycle will be greatly strengthened by the commitment to source 100% of virgin aluminium capsule material compliant with the new Aluminium Stewardship Initiative standard. The company has played a leading role in initiating the new standard and continues to be a strong proponent for sustainable aluminium use.“

100% carbon insetting

• Further reduce its carbon footprint by 10%
• Become 100% carbon neutral.

Nespresso plans to increase farm climate resilience through planting 10 million trees in the AAA coffee regions. This will also allow the company to compensate its residual operational carbon footprint within its own value chain, an approach called insetting.

“The approach that Nespresso is taking is completely aligned with the vision we have to integrate social and environmental innovations into the heart of business,“ said Tristan Lecomte, President of Pur Projet. “We believe that investing in reforestation of agricultural regions will not only restore natural ecosystems but ultimately also improve coffee quality and productivity and provide better returns for farmers.“

The Positive Cup strategy is supported by members of the Nespresso Sustainability Advisory Board (NSAB) including the Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade International, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and brand ambassador George Clooney.