NEW YORK, NY — Nestle slashed its direct greenhouse gas emissions 16 percent during the past decade that saw the company's production volume increase 76 percent.
The company announced the development in its first Creating Shared Value report released this week, which details the company's social and environmental performance. The company's key environmental areas of focus are water, energy and packaging.
Since 2003, Nestle has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions 17.3 percent; between 1998 and 2007, the company lowered emissions 16 percent overall. During the last 10 years, Nestle has reduced its energy consumption 3 percent, with a goal of future energy savings of 1 percent to 2 percent per ton of product during the next five years.
Nestle, a member of the Carbon Disclosure Project, has dabbled in renewable energy, such as recovering methane gas generated from its water treatment plants to use a fuel. Methane recovery at Nestle's Shimada factory in Japan has allowed the location to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 38 percent.
Nestle now uses 22 percent less packaging material for its bottle water products, and reduced the amount of water it withdraws for these products have dropped by 28 percent since 1998.
About 18 percent of the company’s factories are certified to ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001 standards, with plans to certify all factories by 2010.