ANALYSIS

 With our research we concluded that Nestlé’s sustainability strategy is eco-efficiency, as they are “focused on being a company that satisfies human needs, & bring the quality of life while progressively reducing environmental impacts through life cycle” in their materiality report their strategy is described as so. Nestles explains that they want their products to not only taste better but when creating these products, they want to make sure the environment is not harmed in any way. Nestle has a goal to arrange resources for future generations, their focus is “safeguarding the environment”, they believe this is a way to act against climate change. They have such a thing as a “Nestle Policy on Environmental Sustainability” this includes Nestle Environmental Requirements, which continuously get updated. To improve their impact on the environment, Nestle has committed to making their packaging sustainable by recovering the packaging and putting it “to new users”, more specifically their bottle, carton packaging. They have also distributed 129 million plantlets to farmers, and 363,000 have been trained in capacity building programs. Nestle has also achieved zero in 182 sites, counting for 39% of the total sites. So, it is for sure that Nestle is becoming a sustainable company in the works, and because their products aren’t priced incredible high, nor are they all branded as environmentally friendly, the best way to describe their sustainability strategy is eco-efficiency, they have taken upon themselves to be efficient and environmentally friendly

Nestle is in stage 3, they have started to “recognize consumer segments which prefer sustainable products and services” and have begun to design and even redesign products to meet the consumers’ needs for new sustainable products. In their annual report, they write that they see millennials are the ones looking for sustainable products and working with as an environmentally sustainable company allows them to please this market. The company has also seen the "opportunities to make cost savings by improving our resource, use efficiency" this would include energy, water, raw and packaging materials and avoiding any waste in the process. Investing on “mitigation” as well as “climate adaptation” is projected to become a great support to meet the customers’ demands in the years to come. It is mentioned in the creating value report, that Nestle has a policy on environmental sustainability, this goes over their product life-cycle approach, and this focuses on six areas, water preservation, natural resources efficiency, biodiversity conservation, air emissions reduction, climate change adaptation and zero waste. All areas mention has pushed Nestle to change the process of their products and even their products have changed. They have introduced fair-trade coffee products which assure customers that farmers are getting paid for making the coffee beans. The company has taken it upon itself to make sure that the palm oil supplied for their products isn’t coming with evidence of destroying rainforests and wildlife, as they use palm oil to make their Kit Kat bars.  Nestle has an overall score of 92 out of 100 to in the Dow Jones Sustainability index to support the fact that the strategy taken, has been working. By choosing to safeguard the environment, nestle has improved their packaging to be environmentally friendly, reduce food loss and waste, preserve forests and natural capitals, and understand and improve the environmental impact of the products they have.

GRI Reporting Evaluation
The following results are based on the GRI guidelines, the materiality report and creating shared value. For the GRI guidelines, we looked at the ones that were met by Nestle, giving us a look at the steps they are following to become sustainable For the materiality map we focused on the ESG (environmental, social and government) identifying the issues that matter most at Nestle and their stakeholders. Nestle works with sustainability, an independent consultancy and thinks tank specialized in corporate sustainability using a formal materiality process. When it comes to shared value we analyzed the issue they were focused on and the actions they took along with products and services they created.

GRI Guidelines	Nestle Evaluation	Nestle Evaluation Description
Stakeholder inclusiveness	Met	They focus on the livelihood of communities they are apart of and the people affect their employees and consumers
Sustainability Context	Met	Nestle breaks down in their GRI Report adding the SDGs as their main guide for sustainability goals they want to meet
Materiality	Met	The company focuses on undernutrition, food and product safety, water stewardship, responsible marketing and influence, human rights, climate change, business ethics, responsible sourcing and traceability, resource efficiency, food, waste and circular economy, and rural development and poverty alleviation.
Timeliness	Met	They have reported their GRI Reports on time every year for the past 2 years
Clarity	Met	The report is easy to understand and has been broken down into sections for easy access to each topic covered

Life Cycle Assessment

Nestle does have a life cycle assessment for their coffee products, this assessment takes an overall look overall that begins with raw materials, goes into manufacturing, packaging, transport, and distribution, information and dialogue and waste and recovery. The results were the following, starting with the first step which is getting the supplies, the problems were the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and water for green coffee cultivation. Nestle decided to train farmers in agricultural techniques, one of them being irrigation which is "the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of crops", and they also distributed plantlets explaining how to produce large amounts of coffee while also being drought resistance. Next, it's the manufacturing this consisted of solving the use of energy, water, and waste. Solution to this was to have zero waste to dispose of, to reduce the amount of water used along with GHG emissions, and with the idea of zero waste, coffee grounds were put into used for factory fuel. 

Sustainable Design Principles 

Nestle has used some sustainable product design principles, one being life cycle design like we mentioned before they had made sure to track the life cycle of their coffee products from the raw materials to the end of life. Another principle they use is design for ease repair/disposal, the company has focused on having a packaging that both protect their products but has the least amount of impact on the environment. 

Lean Systems 

Nestle uses lean systems, though they are working on green manufacturing in the documents we've read about Nestle they are focusing on achieving a lean system. Meaning they are focused on waste minimization that will in no way affect the level of productivity. Using all "perishable raw materials and turning them into valuable-added food products" for consumers. Nestle has decided to use efficient and effective technologies so they can "optimize energy" and "water consumption", reusing their products. As we were researching, we just kept going back to Nestle aiming to be a zero-waste company, through their products in 2016 they recover about 94% of the materials that had been used in the manufacturing process for their products. By also analyzing over the details, like which raw materials are being used, and which are going to waste they are continuously thinking of new ways to create a better sustainable manufacturing process that in the long run with zero waste would help them utilize every raw material to its full extent benefiting, both the company and the planet.

         Sustainable Supply Chain Practices

               Using some sustainable supply chain practices, one of them being using local sources. Nestle is using local farmers, and only going for primary resources for the making of their coffee products. So far, they have 61% total of suppliers that comply with the Nestle Supplier Code that makes sure they are being sustainable themselves and not violating the environment to get the materials needed. There are about 44% responsibly sources raw ingredients, making sure the ingredients can be traceable to their origin and responsibly sourced. Nestle is focused on having an anti-corruption and no bribery, that why they incorporate it into their Code of Business Conduct. They have trained 36,524 in anti-corruption issues, there were also 33 markets found that need to reinforce their policies and input stronger guidelines. Nestle has created a program called CARE that complies with human rights and labor practices, business integrity, safety, and health, environmental sustainability, and security, this allowed the company to identify 130 gaps that needed to be looked at and fixed. As a company, they have taken steps to make sure their supply chain is a sustainable supply chain, so far, they have been able to improve on those two aspects, but they plan to do more in the future by 2020.

      Systems Thinking
                Systems thinking is applied to Nestle because as a company they have recognized the impact they have on the environment and has started projects to help with creating their goods and being responsible with the resources taken from the planet. Also, they have considered a holistic picture on the impact on the environment and have started to focus on the future of the planet. By setting boundaries they are mainly focused on the issues of saving water, natural capital and food security, this is part of their “Safeguarding the environment” commitment. Nestle has used concepts like feedback loops, this is basically the way a system will turn out in either reinforcing or stabilizing the actions of Nestle through these feedbacks. As of now, Nestle has an ERP software that has helped with material distribution and accounting applications in regions such as United States, Europe and Canada (Pearson. 2010). But the company is looking for a better software and through reinforcing feedback from their employees they have decided to make it their goal to have a better software within the company and outside the company deleting all silos. Another reinforcing feedback has been from their customers regarding their products, as a lot of millennials are showing Nestle they want sustainable products, leading Nestle to create more and more sustainable products that have low to zero impact on the environment through the whole product life. Both of these feedback loops have affected Nestle in a positive way, as they continue their journey to become an innovative sustainable company.