Nestle Transforms Sustainability for a Global Market
Nestl is transforming how corporations view sustainability by expanding the scope of how it ascertains environmental impact. While many corporations focus on packaging, Nestl is analyzing all stages of the product lifespan and including all industry partners in the analysis. Its approach will no doubt reverberate throughout the market as it redefines the industry standard for products with improved environmental performance.
“At Nestl, we are in favor of a multi-criteria assessment methodology rather than Carbon Footprinting alone, which is focusing only on one indicator,” explains Dr. Urs Schenker, Nestl LCA Specialist. “The ISO norm specifies that we should always assess a series of representative environmental impact indicators simultaneously, to obtain a comprehensive picture of the overall environmental performance of our products”
Why Change?
Traditional sustainability processes have focused solely on reducing overall packaging. Schenker explains how this methodology is flawed. “The main role of packaging is to protect the product it contains. Focusing on packaging alone fails to identify the important role packaging plays to protecting the product on its way to the consumer and may generate food waste.”
Time also plays a significant role as the traditional methodology returns analysis results when little can be done.
“In the product development process that we follow at Nestl, we know quite well what the product might look like.” Schenker continues, “But the time it takes to obtain the results is relatively long with a complex conventional Lifecycle Assessment. We will have the results only when the product is rolled on the market, which is obviously too late to still apply changes to the product.”
The Solution
Nestl partnered with Selerant to create an EcoDesign tool, EcodEX that is integrated with DevEX, its web-based Product Lifecycle Management solution. EcodEX supports environmental innovation because it integrates every step of product development. It can evaluate environmental impacts in a user-friendly interface with rapid results of all environmental factors.
Nestl can now expand its ecodesign process to analyze more than a single phase, and envision all uses of the product. “You always take into account all phases of the life cycle of a product.” Schenker points out, “And for a food product, this starts with the agriculture phase… Here at Nestl, we also view past the retail sale of our product to the consumer use. For example, with the purchase of coffee, consumers will heat the water. This calculation is factored into our LCA of the product, along with the end-of-life phase (waste).”
Not only can Nestl get more relevant results from its ecodesign process, but it can also expand the entire process including team members involved in the cycle. This is done through user-friendly environments, simplified analysis results, and scenarios that could be saved and used for future results.
Equally as important, Nestl now has the tools to manage entire product portfolios to track the environmental sustainability performance across multiple product lines in minutes — not months.
The Results
“Nestl has brought the Lifecycle Assessment approach earlier into the design phase by moving to the simplified EcoDesign tools in Selerant’s EcodEX,” says Schenker. “This approach makes it actually possible to influence the product development based on environmental assessments and therefore makes it possible to take environmental aspects into account in a systematic manner.”
While many CEOs struggle to not just define, but determine if they will implement a sustainability strategy, Nestl has made significant strides throughout the world. It has received governmental awards, technical achievement certifications, and established best practice methodologies with partners.
FAST FACTS
Eco-Friendly Innovation
An ISO 14040 certified EcoDesign tool from Selerant enables Nestl to achieve an improved environmental performance of products in their innovation phase.
In the Green
Nestl received the 2011 World Environment Center Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development. Also, by the end of 2011, a total of 413 factories had achieved ISO 14001 certification.
Company at a Glance
As the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturer, Nestl had sales around 84 billion CHF in 2011, employs more than 328,000 people, and continues to see growth despite recessions in several of its markets.
Words of Wisdom
“This approach makes it actually possible to influence the product development early in the design phase, based on a methodologically sound environmental assessment and therefore makes Lifecycle Assessment more affordable, faster and, in particular, more efficient.”
—Dr. Urs Schenker, Nestl LCA Specialist
“At Nestl, we are in favor of a multi-criteria assessment methodology rather than Carbon Footprinting alone, which is focusing only on one indicator,” explains Dr. Urs Schenker, Nestl LCA Specialist. “The ISO norm specifies that we should always assess a series of representative environmental impact indicators simultaneously, to obtain a comprehensive picture of the overall environmental performance of our products”
Why Change?
Traditional sustainability processes have focused solely on reducing overall packaging. Schenker explains how this methodology is flawed. “The main role of packaging is to protect the product it contains. Focusing on packaging alone fails to identify the important role packaging plays to protecting the product on its way to the consumer and may generate food waste.”
Time also plays a significant role as the traditional methodology returns analysis results when little can be done.
“In the product development process that we follow at Nestl, we know quite well what the product might look like.” Schenker continues, “But the time it takes to obtain the results is relatively long with a complex conventional Lifecycle Assessment. We will have the results only when the product is rolled on the market, which is obviously too late to still apply changes to the product.”
The Solution
Nestl partnered with Selerant to create an EcoDesign tool, EcodEX that is integrated with DevEX, its web-based Product Lifecycle Management solution. EcodEX supports environmental innovation because it integrates every step of product development. It can evaluate environmental impacts in a user-friendly interface with rapid results of all environmental factors.
Nestl can now expand its ecodesign process to analyze more than a single phase, and envision all uses of the product. “You always take into account all phases of the life cycle of a product.” Schenker points out, “And for a food product, this starts with the agriculture phase… Here at Nestl, we also view past the retail sale of our product to the consumer use. For example, with the purchase of coffee, consumers will heat the water. This calculation is factored into our LCA of the product, along with the end-of-life phase (waste).”
Not only can Nestl get more relevant results from its ecodesign process, but it can also expand the entire process including team members involved in the cycle. This is done through user-friendly environments, simplified analysis results, and scenarios that could be saved and used for future results.
Equally as important, Nestl now has the tools to manage entire product portfolios to track the environmental sustainability performance across multiple product lines in minutes — not months.
The Results
“Nestl has brought the Lifecycle Assessment approach earlier into the design phase by moving to the simplified EcoDesign tools in Selerant’s EcodEX,” says Schenker. “This approach makes it actually possible to influence the product development based on environmental assessments and therefore makes it possible to take environmental aspects into account in a systematic manner.”
While many CEOs struggle to not just define, but determine if they will implement a sustainability strategy, Nestl has made significant strides throughout the world. It has received governmental awards, technical achievement certifications, and established best practice methodologies with partners.
FAST FACTS
Eco-Friendly Innovation
An ISO 14040 certified EcoDesign tool from Selerant enables Nestl to achieve an improved environmental performance of products in their innovation phase.
In the Green
Nestl received the 2011 World Environment Center Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development. Also, by the end of 2011, a total of 413 factories had achieved ISO 14001 certification.
Company at a Glance
As the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturer, Nestl had sales around 84 billion CHF in 2011, employs more than 328,000 people, and continues to see growth despite recessions in several of its markets.
Words of Wisdom
“This approach makes it actually possible to influence the product development early in the design phase, based on a methodologically sound environmental assessment and therefore makes Lifecycle Assessment more affordable, faster and, in particular, more efficient.”
—Dr. Urs Schenker, Nestl LCA Specialist