Nestlé brand KitKat says it aims to become carbon neutral within four years by reducing emissions generated throughout the production cycle, from finding ingredients through manufacturing and distribution, by more than 50%.

The company says that most of the brand's emissions derive from the production of milk and cacao, and its strategy to reduce these will focus on initiatives like restoring forests and supporting a transition to regenerative agriculture.

For any emissions that cannot be eliminated, the company says it will invest in "high quality offsetting based on natural climate solutions".

KitKat is working with The Carbon Trust, a global climate change and sustainability consultancy, to measure the brand’s current carbon footprint and will complete this process later this year.

More will be done to restore forests, it says, in line with its 2019 action plan to help protect and restore forests in its cocoa supply chain, including an initiative to restore and protect more than 500,000 hectares of tropical forests in Southeast Asia, where the company sources its ingredients, as part of the Rimba Collective.

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Farming methods such as reducing synthetic inputs, better management of soils and tree planting can help draw down carbon from the atmosphere, enhance biodiversity and boost on-farm productivity, and to support this, KitKat says it will help farmers plant five million shade trees in its cocoa plantations by 2025.

In manufacturing, the company will work to continue cutting the amount of energy required, now down by 40% compared with 2000, and substitute renewable energy sources so that by 2025 100% of its usage will come from renewables.