Daily CSR
Daily CSR

Daily CSR
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Nestlé Finds Its ‘Agricultural Commodities’ ‘Deforestation-Free’



05/13/2019

Nestlé’s commitment towards zero-deforestation achieves a significant milestone. Learn about its methods and experience.


Dailycsr.com – 13 May 2019 – Last month, Nestlé made an announcement to reveal that it verified its “agricultural commodities” and it found it to be “deforestation-free”, whereby marking a milestone achievement in the organisation’s efforts towards attaining “zero-deforestation”.
 
Nestlé had pledged to the “zero-deforestation” commitment in the year of 2010, whereby it sought to make sure that all its products across the globe would be deforestation free by the year of 2020. In this journey, the company has worked with various partners such as “Airbus and Earthworm Foundation” as well as its suppliers in the pursuit of deforestation risks.
 
In order to achieve this goal, Nestlé has process that combines multiple tools like “certification, supply chain mapping, on-the-ground verification and satellite imagery from the Starling system”, the latter stemmed from the collaboration of “Airbus, Earthworm Foundation and Nestlé”.
 
At present, the system comes in handy for Nestlé for monitoring “its entire palm oil supply chain”. Moreover, the company is also conducting pilot projects for “pulp and paper”, while plans are rife about extending the same to soya sometimes later this year.
 
Starling proves to be a “cutting-edge technology” which has been instrumental in Nestlé’s attempt to find out “where deforestation occurs, what drives it and who is involved”. With these information in hand, the company is better equipped to deal with compliance, “challenge its suppliers and prioritize transformative actions”.
 
In the words of the Head of Operations’ executive vice-president at Nestlé S.A., Magdi Batato:
“Innovation and technology like Starling is accelerating our journey towards zero deforestation. This is transforming the way we manage deforestation risks in our palm oil supply chain – we are using this tool to hold our suppliers and ourselves accountable. We are satisfied with our progress, but there is much more to do. The last miles to go are always the hardest.”
 
While, the chief technology officer at Airbus, Grazia Vittadini added:
“Starling turns terabytes of satellite images into actionable insight, enabling customers to understand where and why deforestation happens and make the best possible decisions”.
 
Sustainability within supply chains demands transparency. As a result, Nestlé has come out with “Transparency Dashboard” which features information on “deforestation trends” with the help of Starling data, whereby it observes the area around Nestlé’s source mills. The Chief Executive Officer of Earthworm Foundation, Bastien Sachet, said:
“Nestlé is the first company to use satellite monitoring across all its palm oil supply chain, accelerating its no deforestation commitment and providing such level of transparency to the public. The data collected through these satellites points out that challenges remain and no single company can achieve that on its own. All businesses that have similar commitments must start monitoring, verifying and most importantly acting on the basis of what these tools reveal to us. Eventually, publically available information about deforestation and supply chains will allow consumers and investors to really see which companies are truly walking the talk”.
 
 
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com