Nespresso unveil plan to be carbon neutral

Despite their convenience and brand appeal, mention coffee capsules and the conversation is sure to eventually meander towards the topic of their environmental impact. On a regular basis facts and figures get thrown about, documenting the problems that these hard to recycle objects cause.

Thankfully though, most of the major players in this market are aware of this and have released media-friendly sound-bites about what they plan to do or what they hope to do in the future.

But Nespresso has taken that one step further and released details about a new scheme that will see the Swiss-based entity invest over $500m in a bid to become one of the greenest companies in the coffee industry.

They stated that they wanted to become carbon neutral by 2020 and would be introducing offsetting programmes within their supply chains and operations, a move which they described as ‘insetting’.

This pot of $547m forms part of their new ‘Positive Cup’ initiative that, alongside this carbon neutral pledge, will see the company invest money into Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan over the next six years in a bit to secure sustainable supply chains in those regions.

Those pods and capsules are also hoped to be cleaned up by the end of the decade as well.

Currently, users can send back their used Nespresso capsules back to designated stores to be recycled. But widespread green disposal options are, at the moment, very thin on the ground.

The Nestle owned company have decreed to collect and recycle all of their aluminium capsules and that from now on they will only source the metal from recycled or sustainable sources, via the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative.

“Our sustainable approach has always been designed to do more than simply minimise impacts,” noted Nestle Nespresso’s chief executive Jean-Marc Duvoisin in a statement that accompanied the announcement.

“The development of even more innovative programs with our partners demonstrates our commitment to creating shared value and generating positive impacts across the entire value chain.”

photo: Luca Mascaro (Flickr), used under CC 2.0