FDBusiness.com

Nespresso is to announce its 2020 sustainability strategy based on a new SFr500 million (Eur414 million) investment to improve farmer welfare and drive environmental sustainability in coffee sourcing and consumption. The new initiative, The Positive Cup, builds upon the steps that Nespresso has already taken over the past five years.

Over the next six years, Nespresso will source 100% of its permanent range of Nespresso Grand Cru coffees sustainably, through its NespressoAAA Program, investing over SFr15 million 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 also pledges to expand its capacity to collect used aluminium capsules to 100%, wherever the companies does 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,” says 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 Nespressobrand ambassador George Clooney.