2015 Nestlé Shared Value Report: A Long-Term Perspective

To celebrate our 150th anniversary, we’re looking back to the brothers whose work would lead to the company we are today. George and Charles Page from Lee County, Illinois, built Europe’s first condensed milk factory in 1866 when they founded the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. It would be a merger with rival Henri Nestlé, who in 1867 began selling his life-saving infant cereal in Vevey, Switzerland, that would lead to the creation of the Nestlé and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. It was this partnership that started Nestlé on the path to the Nutrition, Health and Wellness work we do today. We continue to enhance lives with science-based nutrition and health solutions for all stages of life, helping consumers care for themselves, their families and their pets. Looking back, we see the beginnings of our conviction that for a company to be successful in the long term and create value for shareholders, it must create value for society. We call this approach Creating Shared Value, and we embed it firmly into all parts of our business.

Our growth has enabled us to improve and positively impact the lives of millions of people through the products and services we provide, employment, our supplier networks and the contribution we make to economies around the world. With this privilege comes immense responsibility and opportunity.

In addition to nutrition, we focus on water, an issue of critical societal concern and the linchpin of food security. We focus on rural and community development because the overall wellbeing of farmers, rural communities and suppliers is intrinsic to the success of our business. We continue to actively manage our commitments to environmental and social sustainability, necessary for operating our factories and facilities and for the sustainable growth and development of the communities where we operate. 

Nestlé’s 150th anniversary represents a significant milestone on our journey. For a company like ours to prosper, we must take a long-term view, framed in a robust set of principles and values developed over the last 150 years. These principles and values are based on respect for the people, communities, environment and future of the world we live in. Thus, our commitments go beyond compliance and are based on values that form the foundation upon which we build our actions in Creating Shared Value.

In 2012, Nestlé S.A. published a set of forward-looking commitments covering every part of our business, to provide a clear sense of our strategic direction and the standards to which we hold ourselves accountable. This year, 2016, marks Nestlé in the U.S.’s second year reporting in accordance with the GRI’s G4 guidelines and Food Processing Sector Supplement. This report addresses material issues identified under the GRI framework and includes highlights on our progress.

Read more stories from the 2015 Creating Shared Value Report