Responsible Sourcing at Nestlé
Your customers care where their food comes from; so do you and so do we. Find out how Nestlé Professional—part of the world’s largest food company—is committed to providing responsibly sourced foods.
As part of Nestlé S.A. of Vevey, Switzerland—the world’s largest food company with a focus on Nutrition, Health & Wellness—Nestlé Professional (NP) and its parent company Nestlé USA are committed to ensuring the safety and sustainability of its supply chain. We do this through stringent Responsible Sourcing Guidelines that have been developed to guide all of Nestlé’s operations around the world.
Our aim is to make sure that vendors work according to the same principles and values that we use ourselves. This means customers can trust the way our ingredients and materials are sourced even before manufacturing begins.
At the same time, many of the raw materials essential to the production of our foods are increasingly constrained, and have significant impacts on people and the environment well before they reach our factories. Consequently, ensuring sustainability of supply is also vital.
How we choose suppliers and how we work with them to continuously improve their performance can positively influence the social and environmental effects that Nestlé makes on the world. We want our suppliers—back to individual farmers and other primary producers—to be able to maintain a viable business, which will enable them to thrive while guaranteeing us security of supply. Our ultimate goal is to do business sustainably, preserving our business and our environment for future generations.
For example:
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We are committed to ensuring that the raw and packaging materials we source are not associated with any damage to existing rainforests
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As the world’s largest milk company, it’s important that we take positive steps to address sustainability issues
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We’re working with coffee farmers to help them increase yields, achieve higher incomes, and bring sustainable growth to local economies
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Through the Nestlé Cocoa Plan we’re working to improve farm profitability, product quality, and traceability in our cocoa supply chains
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We are committed to supporting the economic, environmental, and social viability of animal farming systems, while ensuring farm animal health and welfare
With more than 300,000 employees worldwide and factory locations in more than 85 countries, Nestlé S.A. is truly a multinational, multicultural company; this is demonstrated in both internal hiring practices and supplier relationships, and it continues to be an important competitive advantage for the company.
In the United States, this includes establishing and growing successful business relationships with increasing numbers of qualified and certified minority-, women-, and veteran-owned suppliers, as well as those businesses that are federally defined as a Small Business or located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones). Fulfilling this commitment is important to our customers, our increasingly diverse consumer base, the communities in which we operate and, ultimately, to the success of our company.
NESTLÉ USA SAFETY, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT (SH&E) POLICY
Safety, Health, and Environment (SH&E) are an integral part of the Nestlé Corporate Business Principles that form our culture. These principles guide our actions and help us protect the safety and health of employees, visitors, contractors, suppliers, and vendors, and care for the environment through sound business practices. Our goal is zero harm to people and the environment, and we believe that our goal of zero injuries and environmental incidents is attainable with the right mindset.
Safety is all about taking individual ownership of action and behaviors—and at the same time, making sure others, including our colleagues, consistently engage in safe behaviors. As Nestlé employees, we each have the obligation to speak up and look out for one another, to be mindful of at-risk conditions, and to behave in a way that prevents injury and negative impact to the environment. Our families and loved ones rely on us to be safe and environmentally-conscious at work and at home. Our business relies on a healthy environment for the efficient production of our agricultural raw materials.
