Nespresso has committed to making every cup of Nespresso coffee, for at-home and professional customers, carbon neutral by 2022. This new ambition builds on more than 10 years of work, during which Nespresso has reduced its carbon emissions and compensated the remainder through agroforestry.
Having already achieved carbon neutrality in its business operations since 2017, the company’s new commitment will tackle emissions that occur in its supply chain and product life cycle.
“Climate change is a reality and our future depends on going further and faster on our sustainability commitments. That is why we are accelerating our commitments to offer our consumers a way to drink a carbon neutral cup of coffee by 2022. A coffee, made from the finest and rarest beans, sustainably sourced.
“Our business and the coffee industry can be a force for good in the world and I hope that our commitment will encourage others to follow,” says Guillaume Le Cunff, CEO of Nespresso.
Nespresso will achieve carbon neutrality through the following initiatives:
- Carbon emission reduction: A crucial element of Nespresso’s vision is to decarbonise its value chain. These immediate initiatives include:
Sustainable energy usage within Nespresso’s operations: Driving towards 100 per cent renewable energy in all Nespresso boutiques and increasing the use of biogas within the manufacturing process.
Expanded circularity of Nespresso products and packaging: Increasing the use of recycled plastic within Nespresso machines, as well as of recycled and low carbon virgin aluminium within coffee capsules. - Planting trees in coffee farms and the surrounding landscapes (insetting): Using trees to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, while investing in nature and building a regenerative agricultural system. Planting trees provides the shade needed to improve the quality and quantity of a coffee harvest. The roots also help protect against soil erosion and landslides and promote soil regeneration. With its partner Pur Projet, Nespresso will triple its insetting in coffee producing countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica.
- Accelerate to make an immediate positive impact (offsetting initiatives): Nespresso will also invest in projects to support forest conservation and restoration as well as implement clean energy solutions within farming communities.
“The pressure is on for all businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and Nespresso is clearly showing a strong will to tackle its own carbon emissions via this ambitious and qualitative carbon neutral program. While we all search for the technical innovations that will reduce carbon, it is urgent that businesses invest as well in the sequestration of their emissions to balance their books as quickly as possible,” says Tristan Lecomte, Founder of Pur Projet.
“We’ve been proud to support Nespresso in doing this, planting millions of trees across the globe within coffee regions in Colombia, Guatemala, and Ethiopia, to take carbon dioxide out of the air since 2014. We will continue working together and triple the capacity of the carbon insetting program and regenerating the ecosystems we all depend upon.”
Nespresso says this carbon neutral commitment is part of a broader sustainability ambition that will be further communicated later this year: “to preserve exceptional coffees, build a resilient and regenerative coffee agriculture system, drive sustainable livelihoods for farmers and build a circular business”.
“Climate change is happening now, which means that we must all take responsibility and action, quickly,” says George Clooney, actor, Nespresso Global Brand Ambassador, and member of the Nespresso Sustainability Advisory Board.
“It’s clear that Nespresso understands this urgency and is putting our planet and people front and centre of the choices it makes. These ambitions and vision build on a commitment to sustainability that I have been privileged to have been involved in over the last seven years. I’ve seen how far we’ve come in that time, and I’m excited to see the good that Nespresso can deliver in the next 10 years.”
