Nestle is onboard in group effort on climate change

In thinking about what climate change means to me and Nestlé, the company that I have proudly served for the past 29 years, it all comes down to respect: respect for the society in which we operate, respect for the environment and respect for future generations.

As the world’s largest food and beverage company, we are massively impacted by changes in the world’s weather patterns, crop yields, water availability, and infrastructure integrity. And because we are directly affected, it’s likely that you and your family are, too. Consider this: Nestlé has over 333,000 employees in over 150 countries and sells 1 billion products every day – products that end up in 97 percent of U.S. households alone.

We are one part of an international effort dedicated to meeting the needs of today without compromising the generations of tomorrow.  That’s why we are taking new steps this week to provide further climate leadership.  These actions include endorsing Caring for Climate, the world’s largest coalition on climate issues, joining the BICEP coalition to advocate for innovative climate and clean energy policies and throwing our support behind the EPA-proposed Clean Power Plan so we can promote a safe, clean and reliable energy system.

With the U.N. forecasting the world population to increase from 7 billion to 8 billion people, Nestlé will play a major role in meeting the increasing need for food during a time when resources are becoming more scarce. In short, we need to produce more with less—and the time for change is now.

Nestlé is a demonstrated leader in creating shared value for customers, employees, stakeholders, consumers and the communities where they live and work. This extends to our creation of sustainability practices that extend from the farm to the consumer and beyond – practices that led the Carbon Disclosure Project to recognize us for our climate disclosure and performance leadership in 2013.    

Among our results, we have reduced greenhouse gas emissions per ton of product by more than 35 percent since 2005 globally, achieving a goal we set for ourselves two years early. We’ve made progress in decreasing food wastage worldwide, invested in responsible sourcing and optimized the efficiency of our product packaging. And we’re helping to meet President Barack Obama’s challenge of eliminating HFCs by phasing out 93 percent of refrigerants globally that have shown to contribute to global warming.

But we must do more—individually and collectively.  Nestlé has been around for 150 years and we aim to be around for 150 more. Sustainability is not only making sure that our business model is able to survive but that we live in a society that is in harmony with what we want our business to be in the future and for the long term.

Bakus is president of Nestlé in the US Corporate Affairs office, based in Washington, D.C.  Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company, with 447 factories in 86 countries around the world.