How Nestle is changing the way KitKats, Nespresso and Milo are made

In the coming decades, KitKats will be wrapped in fully recycled packaging with a vegan version widely available; coffee from Nespresso pods will be sustainably produced; and Milo’s raw ingredients will be made using regenerative agricultural practices.

For the world’s biggest food and beverage maker, Nestle, it’s all part of its commitment to make its operations cleaner and greener. The measures include planting trees and overhauling its manufacturing processes.

Nestle Australia will plant 10 million trees within the next three years, as part of its parent’s larger reforestation initiative to plant 200 million around the world, but will rely on some of its most popular brands to sell its sustainability efforts to consumers.

“We are a food company. We need ingredients that come from the land,” said Nestle Oceania CEO Sandra Martinez. “If we do not ensure that we can restore, renew, protect the land that gives us the ingredients, the nutrients that every one of us puts on the table, we won’t have a future.”

Martinez, who has worked at Nestle for 36 years, warned companies would pay a high price for failing to act on the climate change emergency. “I think we get that sense of urgency.”

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Nestle joins other global conglomerates like Cadbury maker Mondelez in being eager to retain consumer dollars and market share by demonstrating its climate credentials.

Nestle Australia has already planted 200,000 of its goal of 10 million trees, which will collectively reduce 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 across 27 years, in a move the company insists is not a token exercise. It made the switch to 100 per cent renewable energy a year ago, with its six Australian factories, two distribution centres, three corporate offices and 20 retail boutiques running on wind power.

The $365 billion global food giant’s reforestation initiative, which in Australia will be delivered in partnership with Greening Australia, Canopy and One Tree Planted, is designed to offset indirect or Scope 3 emissions that are released during the production of the raw materials Nestle uses in its products, like sugar and cocoa.