At Nestlé, as the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company, we acknowledge the responsibility that we have to contribute to the creation of a just society and to take action to bring about positive change for people and communities.

Now, more than ever, there is a need for collaborative action to affect meaningful change, with a host of issues, ranging from climate change, economic inequality, deprivation and poverty posing challenges for society as a whole.

To play our part, we are committed to establishing local partnerships, supporting communities, and implementing ethical and sustainable practices across our supply chain.

These actions are an investment in and dedication to creating a positive, and more equitable society for future generations and safeguarding our planet.

INCOME ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME

Nestlé is helping to close the living income gap of cocoa farming families and reduce child labour risk through the roll out of its Income Accelerator Programme.

The global sustainability initiative uses traceable cocoa ingredients for its KitKat, Quality Street, Aero, After Eight, Yorkie and Rolo products, guaranteed to have been sourced from cocoa farming families who are involved in the initiative.

This builds on the work of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan, and to date, over 30,000 cocoa-farming families are being supported across four main pillars – school enrolment, good agricultural practices, agroforestry and income diversification.

By 2030, Nestlé’s Income Accelerator Programme aims to reach an estimated 160,000 cocoa farming families in its supply chain.

FOCUS ON REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

As a business, Nestlé has committed to sourcing 20% of ingredients through regenerative practices by 2025 and 50% by 2030.

As an example, an investment of over €1bn by Nestlé will help coffee farmers transition to regenerative agriculture practices, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve farmers’ livelihoods.

NESTLÉ IRELAND AND BARRETSTOWN TEAM UP

Nestlé Ireland this year announced Barretstown as its new staff charity partner until 2027.

Barretstown is Ireland’s largest provider of medically endorsed therapeutic camps and programmes for children with cancer and other serious illnesses, and all of its services are entirely free of charge.

During this three-year partnership, Nestlé Ireland aims to raise over €100,000 and provide strategic support to the organisation, such as transferring business skills, mentoring, volunteering and supplying products to offset the charity’s operational costs.

The partnership is part of Nestlé’s community engagement programme, which aims to make a difference in enriching the lives of the people in the communities within which it operates.

So far, the community engagement programme has contributed over €8.5m for charitable causes in Ireland in the past two decades, and every three years, a new charity is chosen via a nomination and vote system among Nestlé staff.

SUPPORTING FAMILIES IN NEED – FOODCLOUD

Since its partnership began in 2018, Nestlé Ireland is the only food supplier to provide all its surplus food to FoodCloud while also making a per-pallet financial contribution.

Nestlé’s work with FoodCloud helps to prevent surplus food ending up in landfill while also ensuring food supplies are provided to the most vulnerable members of society.

Each year, Nestlé Ireland employees complete almost 300 hours volunteering in the FoodCloud community kitchen.

In 2024, they redistributed 48.3 tonnes of surplus food, equating to almost 115,000 meals and 111 tonnes of C02.

Overall, in the last seven years, the team has prevented 183.6 tonnes of surplus food stock and the equivalent of 544 tonnes of CO2 from going to waste, and the equivalent of more than 437,000 meals going to families and individuals in need.

SUPPORTING DUBLIN SIMON

Nestlé Ireland has a long-standing partnership with the Dublin Simon Community, which offers services and supports to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Now, well into its second decade, the partnership involves supplying the charity with Nescafé Coffee and KitKat bars.

To date, that is over 4.5 million cups of coffee and over 250,000 KitKat bars donated to support the critical work carried out by Dublin Simon in our communities.

NESTLÉ IRELAND AND THE DSPCA PARTNERSHIP

For the last 17 years, Nestlé Ireland has been a proud partner of the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA), Ireland’s oldest animal welfare charity.

Through this partnership, Nestlé’s pet care business Purina has supplied more than 300,000 meals and treats to the DSPCA.

Both Nestlé and the DSPCA have pledged to continue to further promote the importance of animal health and wellbeing and responsible pet ownership.

SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION

Nestlé Ireland partners annually with An Taisce’s Clean Coasts to improve Ireland’s environmental coastlines by organising beach clean-ups around the country, creating a tangible improvement of Ireland’s coastal environment.

This is part of Nestlé’s global corporate volunteering efforts to protect coastal areas and support sustainability for people and communities.

Over the last four years, more than 150 volunteers have taken part in beach clean ups, collecting more than 200kg of rubbish, including single-use plastics, wood, paper and cardboard.

Photo: Kieran Conroy, Nestlé Ireland Country Manager