November 25, 2008

Nestle Wants Suppliers To Pursue Sustainability

Nestle Waters North America’s president and CEO Kim Jeffery told Plastics & Rubber Weekly that the company is expecting its suppliers to pursue sustainability.

“We are going to be pushing more on our suppliers to figure some of this [sustainability] stuff out,” said Jeffery. “By 2013, we plan to reduce carbon intensity by 20 percent across our full value chain — from the production of plastic resin to delivery of products to our customers,” said Jeffery.

This year, the company reduced the size of its half-liter PET water bottles by 15 percent and is planning to reduce it another 20 percent in 2009. The move will cut the PET water bottle’s weight to 9.8 grams, resulting in energy savings and GHG emissions reduction.

The company has also set a goal of producing a bottle with up to 25 percent recycled PET by 2013, and is also aiming to develop and produce bottles made entirely from recycled materials or renewable materials, such as bioplastics, by 2020.

Jeffery questions whether bioplastics are the best solution and says, “the better solution may be getting better at PET recycling, but that is also the harder solution.”

In October, the company threatened to sue Miami-Dade County for a radio ad that touts the county’s tap water as cheaper, purer and safer than bottled water.

Last year, the company’s president and CEO, Kim Jeffery, wrote an opinion piece for Hearst Newspapers countering criticism of the bottled water industry.

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