Robert Auselius, Head of Country Nestlé Finland
As a major global business and a leading company in our industry, Nestlé has not only a responsibility but also a unique opportunity to help to tackle climate change. We are doing this through collaboration with businesses across our supply chain and partnerships with other stakeholders.
Climate change.
It is not something that will only impact our children and grandchildren. The impact is visible now. Extreme weather conditions have surged. Droughts are threatening vital food crops. The threat of rising sea levels is imminent.
At Nestlé, we approach climate change holistically, with science-based targets. We are committed to zero net climate emissions by 2050. In September this year, we signed the Business Ambition 1.5°C pledge, committing to the most ambitious objectives of the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Our action is yielding quantifiable results already.
There is an achievement of which I am incredibly proud. In 2018, our baby-food production facility in Turku became Nestlé’s second zero-emission plant in Europe. For power, the facility purchases steam and heat from a wood-burning power plant and renewable electricity based on wind and hydropower. As the facility creates no landfill waste either, it has become a so-called double zero factory – Nestlé’s second, the other one located in Sweden.
I am delighted to be able to tell you that we are also accelerating our plant-based food portfolio in Finland. Our vegetarian offering is in stores under the Hälsans Kök brand.
Outside Finland, as I'm writing these words, we have just announced our core partnership in the New Plastics Economy project, strengthening our leadership to achieve a circular economy in plastics.
This very week, Michiel Kernkamp, CEO, Nestlé Nordics, gave a keynote at the inaugural Climate Leaders Forum in Helsinki, speaking to an audience of business leaders and top sustainability experts. He provided a summary on how Nestlé is taking its proactive sustainability work further, in collaboration with the operators in our value chain.
For our part, we are determined, for instance, to use only renewable electricity in our factories, warehouses, logistics, and offices. In our supply chain, the measures range from collaborating with farmers in restoring farmland to protecting forests by planting trees and working for increased biodiversity.
A significant transformation in our thinking and our behaviours is required to limit global warming to 1.5°C. We are committed to this shift, and we are taking action. But everyone is needed on board: individuals, enterprises, other organisations – and governments.
I have three children. Many of you have children. As a parent, I know we must change. Now. The more we do every day, the faster we will get there. I know that together, we can create a better future.
