Nespresso announces 2020 sustainability strategy based on new investment

Nespresso is to announce its 2020 sustainability strategy based on a new CHF 500m investment to improve farmer welfare and drive environmental sustainability in coffee sourcing and consumption.

The new initiative, The Positive Cup, builds on the steps that Nespresso has already taken over the past five years. Over the next six, Nespresso will source 100% of its permanent range of Nespresso Grand Cru coffees sustainably through its Nespresso AAA Program, investing over CHF 15m in three African coffee-producing countries: Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan.

The AAA Program, launched in collaboration with The Rainforest Alliance in 2003, aims to protect the future of the highest quality coffees and secure the livelihoods of the farmers that grow them.

Nespresso will also become 100% carbon neutral, planting trees to compensate for its carbon footprint.

Nespresso has also pledged to expand its capacity to collect used aluminium capsules to 100% (wherever the companies do business), and to recycle these used capsules into new ones in countries such as the UK and France.

It will announce a goal of sourcing 100% of aluminium capsule material compliant with the new Aluminium Stewardship Initiative standard being developed under the leadership of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

“The development of even more innovative programmes with our partners demonstrates our commitment to generating positive impacts for all stakeholders across the entire value chain,” said Nestlé Nespresso CEO Jean-Marc Duvoisin.

The new strategy is backed by the company’s Sustainability Board, including NGOs the Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade International, the IUCN and Nespresso brand ambassador George Clooney.

Clooney said the involvement of Nespresso and its partner Technoserve in South Sudan was also an investment in future prospects for the country’s peace and economic development.

Nespresso, the first major coffee company to re-enter South Sudan in 2011, has so far invested CHF 700,000 in the region.

“The investment by Nespresso and TechnoServe in South Sudan’s coffee sector, even while the conflict is ongoing, is providing much-needed income for hundreds of farmers and their families,” said Clooney.