Regeneration:

Protect, Renew, Restore

Nestlé has invested in sustainability programmes for longer than any other category supplier with initiatives such as the Cocoa Plan and Cup of Respect Coffee Plan supporting global cocoa and coffee-farming communities since 1999.

The company launched its ‘Generation-Regeneration’ plan in 2021, the aim of which is to ensure a resilient future for our planet and its people.

There are three core commitments underpinning the strategy.

Central to this is advancing regenerative food systems at scale to help protect, renew and restore the environment, improve the livelihoods of farmers. NITR also aims to enhance the resilience and well-being of communities and consumers at a time of climate change and environmental threat.

This is the ethos that Nestlé is embracing — going beyond sustainability and into regeneration. This is the ethos that NITR is taking to its own strategy — sustainability is just the beginning but equal focus is given to actively renewing and restoring our planet.

Nestlé is moving fast to deliver its ambitious sustainability commitments, pledging to transition to 100% recyclable or reusable packaging across its entire range and reduce the use of virgin plastic by one-third by 2025.

Moving the Smarties brand to 100% recyclable paper packaging across the full product portfolio was a global first for a confectionery brand and will reduce Nestlé’s plastic footprint by 250 million packs per annum.

In 2023, Nestlé furthered this mission with the launch of Smarties Cool Creatures: a travel retail exclusive with sustainability at its core.

The Smarties Cool Creatures paper packaging is sourced sustainably and is made of a coated paper, paper labels or carton board. Information about how to properly dispose of its paper packaging is also included on its labels to raise consumer awareness and encourage sustainable behaviour.

The chocolates in the Smarties Cool Creatures are made from 100% certified sustainable cocoa beans sourced through the Nestlé Cocoa Plan. In addition to its excellent sustainable credentials, Smarties Cool Creatures takes inspiration from Nestlé’s ‘Play in our Colourful World’ campaign by providing hours of worthwhile educational play.

The paper toys provide endless amounts of fun and can be restructured differently again and again, rather than used once and discarded. Consumer response has been hugely positive, with Smarties in travel retail growing faster than the overall confectionery category at +14% vs last year – driving category growth for retailers in a sustainable and responsible way.

Quality Street is moving to recyclable paper packaging for its twist-wrapped sweets. By replacing the double layer of foil and cellulose with a paper wrap, Quality Street is removing more than 2 billion pieces of packaging material from the brand’s supply chain.

NITR Global Head of Marketing Aura Sanchez said: “Sustainability is a core value that underpins every element of our design process, product execution and communications. We understand the role sustainability now plays in purchasing decisions and are committed to giving our consumers appropriate and responsible choices.”

Regeneration: Addressing sustainability expectations

Income Accelerator Programme

Poverty, increased climate risks, limited access to financial resources, inadequate infrastructure and lack of access to education are just some of the many pressures faced by cocoa-farming families in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. These factors, among others, increase the prevalence of child labour risks in the cocoa sector.

Nestlé’s Income Accelerator Programme was created to help address these challenges in a holistic way within cocoa-farming communities. With a clear focus on income, the programme aims to improve the livelihoods of 160,000 cocoa-farming families and help tackle child labour risks.

In line with Nestlé’s overall approach to advancing regenerative food systems, the programme uses financial incentives to promote and reward the adoption of social and environmental practices. These practices seek to increase resilience, equality and opportunity for cocoa-farming communities.

To roll out the programme, Nestlé has partnered with the International Cocoa Initiative, the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), the Rainforest Alliance and the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Since January 2022, cocoa-farming families have received an estimated €2 million-worth of incentives. Some of the activities on the ground include school enrolment drives, the establishment of enhanced schooling facilities, cocoa farm pruning initiatives and agroforestry projects.

To date, 99% of cocoa-farming households volunteered to enrol their children to school, 94% of all cocoa-farming hectares were pruned, while 210,670 trees were planted following agroforestry principles, double the initial targeted amount.

Agroforestry is crucial to smallholder farms for its many potential economic, sociocultural and environmental benefits. The income accelerator programme promotes agroforestry by providing access to high-quality shade and fruit tree seedlings. More trees planted equals more shade for the cocoa, which in turn builds resilience, supports diversity and creates a thriving ecosystem.

In addition, women from cocoa-farming families are invited to join the Villages Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) and take part in Gender Action Learning at Scale (GALS) and Income Generating Activities (IGAs) training. These efforts empower women with financial literacy and freedom, while simultaneously diversifying income sources for cocoa-farming families.

Following the completion of the Income Accelerator Programme’s test-at-scale phase in 2024, Nestlé is aiming to triple the size of the programme by rolling out to 100% of its supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Regeneration: Income Acceleration Programme results

“We are confident that over time, we will see a measurable impact on farmers’ incomes and an improvement in the lives of children throughout our cocoa-sourcing regions as we move forward in scaling-up the programme”

– Nestlé Cocoa Plan Head Darell High