Nestle brews up $490m sustainable coffee plan

Nestle has revealed that it is to invest CHF500m (£321m) over the next decade to reduce the environmental impact of its leading coffee brands, Nescafe and Nespresso.

The Swiss food giant said the investment programme would build on the CHF200m spent on sustainable coffee projects over the past 10 years and would see CHF300m earmarked for its Nescafe plan and a further CHF150m invested in its Nespresso brand.

Under the strategy, which was formally launched late last month, Nestle will expand its team of field technicians to 350 staff, allowing the company to enhance the best practice advice it offers to coffee farmers in its supply chain.

The expanded team will distribute 220 million high-yield, disease-resistant coffee plants to farmers by 2020 and establish 300 farms to demonstrate environmentally sustainable best practices.

The company has also committed to doubling the amount of Nescafe coffee it buys directly from farmers in a move that will see it ultimately purchase 180,000 tonnes of coffee from about 170,000 farmers every year.

In addition, it said it would work with the Common Code for the Coffee Community Association (4C) to ensure that all the unroasted coffee the company purchases directly meets the 4C sustainability standards by 2015.

Moreover, 90,000 tonnes of Nescafé coffee will be sourced according to the Rainforest Alliance and Sustainable Agriculture Network principles by 2020.

The wide-ranging strategy also features an investment plan designed to improve the energy efficiency of Nestle's processing and production facilities by 20 per cent per tonne of coffee by 2020 and cut waste levels by 30 per cent per tonne. In addition, the company is looking to standardise the use of spent coffee grounds as fuel at all its factories.