Compared to its peers, Nestl\u00e9 has done much to earn its reputation; but the full story of the company\u2019s journey to net zero is more fraught than its emissions data implies.<\/p>\n
Track record<\/p>\n
Nestl\u00e9\u2019s net-zero target was validated relatively early \u2014 in 2020 \u2014 by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Five years later, many in the sector are still trying to catch up: Only 44 percent of the largest food, beverage and agriculture companies have net zero targets, and 23 percent have no target of any kind, according to the Net Zero Tracker, a data source maintained by four research organizations.<\/p>\n
Other sector comparisons are similarly positive. In a benchmarking exercise released in May<\/a> by Ceres, a nonprofit focused on the business case for climate action, researchers found that Nestl\u00e9 was following several best practices that are rare in the sector, including setting climate requirements for suppliers. The company is also one of just three peers \u2014 with Campbell Soup and Danone \u2014 to have set targets for methane and other non-carbon dioxide agricultural gases in its supply chain.<\/p>\n The work behind this progress is overseen by Chief Sustainability Officer Antonia Wanner, a 24-year company veteran who moved from procurement into an ESG role in 2020 and joined the C-suite in January. Wanner and other leaders have short- and long-term compensation bonuses tied to emissions reductions.<\/p>\n Wanner\u2019s boss, CEO Laurent Freixe, took the helm last August; his predecessor was ousted after what The Wall Street Journal described as \u201cslowing sales growth and a slumping share price.\u201d Nestl\u00e9 stock has fallen slightly since Freixe\u2019s arrival and is now down close to 30 percent from a January 2022 peak.<\/p>\n Nestl\u00e9\u2019s biggest challenge: Scope 3<\/p>\n Like many other food and beverage companies, particularly those that source dairy and livestock ingredients, Nestl\u00e9 faces an emissions challenge that is essentially a Scope 3 challenge: Of the 75 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions (tCO2e) the company generated in 2024, 71 million tCO2e \u2014 95 percent \u2014 stem from the company\u2019s value chain. These include 13 million tCO2e of methane emissions from its ingredient sourcing.<\/p>\n Nestl\u00e9\u2019s Scope 3 emissions have fallen steadily since 2021, the earliest year for which the company provided data in its most recent sustainability report, as have direct emissions from the company\u2019s facilities and its electricity purchases. If progress continues at the current rate, Nestl\u00e9 will achieve its goal of halving emissions by 2030.<\/p>\n The reductions are notable given that decarbonizing dairy and livestock emissions ranks among the \u201ctoughest tasks\u201d for food companies, according to David Linich, a sustainability partner at PwC. Linich declined to comment on Nestl\u00e9 specifically, but a 2024 PwC survey of emissions disclosures shows that just over half the company\u2019s peers are not on track to hit Scope 3 goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nestl\u00e9 has achieved these reductions using tactics that include training producers to improve the productivity of their farms, preventing deforestation in its supply chain and reducing methane emissions from cattle, according to its most recent Net Zero Roadmap, published in 2023.<\/p>\n Achieving the remaining cuts that Nestl\u00e9 needs to stay on track for 2030 \u2014 notably lowering emissions from sourcing ingredients by 5 million tCO2e, were the company to reduce all greenhouse gases in proportion \u2014 will be challenging. The company is pursuing this on multiple fronts, including the use of food additives for cattle, which the company projects will reduce methane emissions by 3.2 million tCO2e by its target date.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nestl\u00e9 is also a member of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance<\/a>, a collaboration between Ceres and the Environmental Defense Fund, which requires members to create action plans for reducing methane emissions. \u201cWe think Nestle is demonstrating that they\u2019re putting plans and steps in place in order to make progress,\u201d said Carolyn Ching, director for food and forests research at Ceres.\u00a0<\/p>\n More uncertain: The role of removals<\/p>\n A second component of Nestl\u00e9\u2019s past and future progress is more controversial. The company hit its 2025 target a year early in part because it removed 1.6 million tCO2e from the atmosphere in 2024 and deducted this figure from its total annual emissions. Nestl\u00e9 did not break this total down, but removal mechanisms highlighted in its latest sustainability report include planting vegetation around water sources, no-till and other regenerative practices, and integrating trees into cropland.\u00a0<\/p>\n The approach is particularly pertinent for Nestl\u00e9 because the company\u2019s use of removals will increase eightfold to hit 13 million tCO2e by 2030, according to its Net Zero Roadmap.\u00a0<\/p>\n SBTi rules allow removals to be subtracted from total emissions in this way, but the practice has been contested because of uncertainties surrounding the reliability of nature-based removals<\/a>. The science on the ability of soils to sequester carbon remains unsettled. Carbon stored in vegetation can also be released back to the atmosphere if farmers stop following regenerative practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a permanent emissions removal,\u201d said Sybrig Smit, a policy analyst at the NewClimate Institute in Germany. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be released into the atmosphere if the land is mismanaged.\u201d<\/p>\n In an emailed response to questions from Trellis, Nestl\u00e9 said it collects data directly from farms, including soil sampling and measurements of tree height, and places 20 percent of credits in a buffer pool to insure against losses. The company is also collaborating with Ofi, a major ingredients supplier, to monitor close to 3 million trees planted by 25,000 farmers in Nigeria, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Brazil. Ofi said that a combination of remote sensing and machine learning enables it to track changes in carbon stocks at the farm level.<\/p>\n What Nestl\u00e9 tells investors<\/p>\n Smit and colleagues at NewClimate, who studied Nestl\u00e9 for recent editions of the organization\u2019s Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor, question another removal line item in Nestl\u00e9\u2019s 2030 plans: 6 million tCO2e the company subtracted from its anticipated 2030 total and attributed to \u201cPortfolio transformation.\u201d Tactics under this heading include switching to plant-based ingredients and \u201cevolving our product offering to include more sustainable options.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A Nestl\u00e9 spokesperson declined to provide a detailed breakdown of where these cuts will come from, but did highlight recent implementations of this strategy, including with its Nescaf\u00e9 Alta Rica instant coffee brand. The emissions associated with each jar have fallen 11-14 percent since 2018<\/a>, according to the Carbon Trust, an independent verifier of environmental projects.<\/p>\n Yet Nestl\u00e9 has deemphasized its commitment to more sustainable products in at least some conversations with investors. A 2022 presentation at a Consumer Analyst Group of New York meeting, for example, included multiple slides on environmental issues and products; in this year\u2019s presentation at the same event, CEO Freixe devoted just two sentences to the topic.<\/p>\n Given the Trump administration\u2019s dismissal of climate issues and attacks on anything considered \u201cwoke,\u201d this could be interpreted as prudent green-hushing. But Nestl\u00e9\u2019s willingness to invest in sustainability, a metric that can be used as a proxy for a company\u2019s commitment to emissions reductions relative to other priorities, is also unclear.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nestl\u00e9 does not share the amount it expects to invest in order to hit its 2030 target, but in a 2024 presentation to investors Freixe said that \u201cwe have done the heavy lifting\u201d on sustainability and \u201cwe will need to continue to invest, probably at a lower pace\u201d relative to the period up to 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n This stands in contrast to other food and beverage companies, which expect to increase the portion of their capital spending that goes to climate transition projects to an average of 20 percent by 2030, according to the PwC survey of emissions disclosures.<\/p>\n The next five years<\/p>\n To understand the complexities of Nestl\u00e9\u2019s efforts to halve emissions by 2030, consider the position it now finds itself in.<\/p>\n On one side are investors, often more concerned with quarterly returns than long-term sustainability. Freixe\u2019s \u201cheavy lifting\u201d comment, for instance, came in response to an investor analyst asking about the drag of sustainability initiatives on operating margins.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the same time, the food sector likely cannot reach net zero without fundamental changes that no company can completely control. Decarbonizing would be easier, for example, if consumers swapped dairy milk for soy \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t seem likely. Policy support is also an issue: one recent report found that current policies in the EU would decrease emissions by just 1.5 percent between 2020 and 2040<\/a>.<\/p>\n These pressures leave Nestl\u00e9\u2019s leaders with little room to maneuver. They\u2019ve charted a course to net zero that is relatively transparent and ambitious, at least when compared with many sector rivals. At the same time, that roadmap is incomplete and relies on carbon accounting that\u2019s open to question. As the climate crisis intensifies, these shortcomings leave critics of the world\u2019s largest food company frustrated. They are also indicative of where the sector is on its journey to net zero.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/trellis_chasing_net_zero_nestle_charts_1.png\" "\\"Chart\\"")
Source: Nestl\u00e9\u2019s Non-Financial Statement 2024<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/trellis_chasing_net_zero_nestle_charts_2.png\")
Source: PwC\u2019s Second Annual State of Decarbonization Report \u2014 Sector Insights<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/trellis_chasing_net_zero_nestle_charts_3.png\")
Source: PwC\u2019s Second Annual State of Decarbonization Report \u2014 Sector Insights<\/p>\n