Nestlé Nigeria’s Unrelenting Commitment to Environmental Sustainability

Nestlé Nigeria’s Unrelenting Commitment to Environmental Sustainability

To work towards its vision of a waste-free future, Nestlé Nigeria takes necessary actions to promote behavioural changes, and to build a circular ecosystem in waste management, starting from the company’s employees and extending to the communities closest to its operations and to a wider audience across Nigeria.

With a strong commitment to help protect, renew and restore the environment, the company is implementing many initiatives promoting Environmental Sustainability.

In 2022, Nestlé Nigeria launched her employee plastics collection scheme which inspires staff to protect the environment and combat plastic pollution by inculcating the habit of sorting wastes at source and recycling for sustainable environmental management.

Through the scheme, employees return all plastic materials, not limited to the company’s brands, and earn points culminating in exciting rewards and management recognitions.

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Over the years, the company has partnered with the Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre on the “Advancing Nutrition, Health and Environmental Awareness through the Media” training which equips journalists to effectively communicate and educate the Nigerian populace on global best practices and lifestyle choices that impact everyday living and carry out fact-based reporting on nutrition, health, wellness, the environment, climate change, and corporate sustainability practices.

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Nestlé has also extended her education campaign to the younger generations through the Sustainability Training for Kids, which enables children imbibe a sustainability mindset from an early age, thereby preparing them to become better stewards of the planet. The training, implemented in collaboration with the International Climate Change Development Initiative (ICCDI), furnishes children with information on waste management, introduces them to the conversion of waste to useful items, and encourages them to adopt positive behavioural changes to enhance environmental sustainability.

The children are also taught sorting of waste at source, with the donation of segregated bins to participating schools.

In Nigeria where we have a nascent waste collection system, poorly managed waste ends up in waterways and clogs drainages, exacerbating the environmental hazards, including flooding which we are increasingly experiencing due to the effects of climate change.

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Data shows that Nigeria generates more than 32 million tons of waste per year with Lagos alone producing about 10,000 metric tons of waste daily. Addressing the plastic waste challenge requires behaviour change from all and Nestlé believes that there is no better place to start than from within.

Nestlé Nigeria is therefore collaborating internally and with external stakeholders to address the waste challenge in line with the company’s global vision that none of its post-consumer packaging waste ends up in waterways or as litter in the environment.

The World Clean-Up Day commemorated annually in September, provides a platform for Nestlé’s employees to help promote awareness of environmentally sound waste management practices for a clean, safe and sustainable planet. Every year, volunteers under Nestlé Cares, the company’s global employee volunteering initiative, collaborate with the Africa Clean-Up Initiative (ACI), an NGO passionate about raising environmentally responsible citizens, for clean-up, sensitization and advocacy on Environmental Sustainability.

This year, over 400 Nestlé employees joined the campaign by visiting twelve markets across the country. The clean-up exercise executed in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Sagamu, Ibadan, Jos, Abuja, Awka, Ota, Agbara, Enugu and Abaji, was powered by MAGGI, one of Nestlé’s leading brands.

Nestlé Nigeria’s Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Victoria Uwadoka, said, “At Nestlé, we are taking concrete actions to protect, renew and restore the environment every day. We are conscious that indiscriminate waste disposal coupled with limited recovery services aggravate the waste crisis. We also recognize that creating awareness through advocacy is necessary on our journey towards a waste free future.

Our priorities, therefore, include improving post-consumption plastic waste management by motivating behavioural changes and creating an efficient recovery system in collaboration with other industry and community stakeholders. We are also accelerating sustainability education through our employees, the media, our communities and children in our Nestlé for Healthier kids beneficiary schools. The market clean-up exercises are one of the ways we have sustained our efforts of improving our environment over the past 5 years.”

According to Dr Alexander Akhigbe, Founder/CEO African Clean-Up Initiative, “Participating in clean-up exercises is a great way to get involved and make a difference in keeping our environment clean and healthy for everyone. At African Clean-Up Initiative, we are passionate about raising environmentally responsible citizens and communities, working for the highest good of the Planet. For this year’s exercise, we ensured the proper management of over 6,660kg of solid waste and 79kg of recyclables collected across all the locations, so that they do not end up back in the environment. We are honoured to be working with Nestlé Nigeria as her implementing partners for this year’s event”.

Comrade Aremu Komolafe, member of the Ojuwoye market committee in Mushin, Lagos State, expressed his pleasure with volunteers from Nestlé Nigeria who joined the traders and market leaders to clean up the popular market in South-West Nigeria. According to him, with the significant amount of waste generated daily due to the large number of visitors and traders buying and selling, the burden of keeping the market clean is huge. To mitigate the situation, every Thursday is designated by the Lagos State government for market clean-up and sensitization of shop and stall owners on the need for proper waste disposal. He said that the clean-up initiative by Nestlé Nigeria will support these environmental sanitation efforts.

Nestlé Nigeria is a leading member of the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA), an Industry collaboration aimed at driving post-consumption waste management and recycling. Volunteers from the company also joined the FBRA-led clean-up initiatives for World Clean-Up Day.

Through the Nestlé Cares platform, employees have the opportunity to give back to society, impacting individuals and families, communities, and the environment, by volunteering their time, resources, and talents.

The company says it will continue to play its part to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment across its operating locations, helping to create a more sustainable world.