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Global Compact International Yearbook 2013
Nestlé
With 2,000+ global and local brands
and more than one billion products sold
around the world every day, Nestlé has
the ability and reach to make a positive
impact on the health and nutrition of
consumers on a large scale–by offer­ing
the right kinds of products and helping
consumers make the right nutritional
choices.
How do we aim to do that? We
have a fundamental conviction that for
a company like ours to prosper, we must
take a long-term view. Everything we do
should create shareholder value, and at
the same time, our work must create
value for society at large, because that is
what ensures the long-term sustainabil-
ity of a company. We call this “creating
shared value.”
Creating shared value
We employ more than 339,000 people
and have operations in almost every
country in the world. We recognize that
our global and local reach, which we
take pride in, brings both opportunities
and responsibilities. Therefore, beyond
complying with national laws, interna-
tional standards, and our own Nestlé
Corporate Business Principles (which are
based on the UN Global Compact’s Ten
Principles), we are operating in ways that
help protect the environment for future
generations. Thus, our commitments
to sustainability and compliance form
the foundations upon which we build
our actions to create shared value in
our focus areas of nutrition, water, and
rural development.
Focus on nutrition
We aim to create shared value in the
area of nutrition by providing nutritious
products that deliver real health benefits
to our consumers and by making our
products more affordable and accessible
through innovation and partnerships.
We have more than 140 years of ex-
perience in enhancing the nutritional
profiles of food products. Today, many
of our products are fortified primarily
with the “big four” micronutrients –
iron, iodine, vitamin A, and zinc. We
use information from local governments
and international health authorities to
identify the different nutritional gaps in
diets. We then “renovate” our portfolio
by adding the relevant nutrients, focus-
ing on popular foods.
Boosting nutritional content of
affordable food
It is important that our fortified products
reach the people who need themmost, so
they must be enjoyable, nutritious, and
affordable. We market a growing num-
ber of “popularly positioned products”
–
high-quality food products, ranging
from culinary products to dairy, that
provide nutritional value at prices to
suit those on lower incomes. We prior-
itize the needs of young children and
Addressing Nutritional
Challenges Through
Micronutrient
Fortification
A number of global trends – including a growing world population, urbanization, rising
incomes, and an increase in the number of people living beyond 60 years – have an impact on
nutritional habits and health. In many developing countries, people bear a “double burden” of
malnutrition, with undernutrition (comprising protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient
malnutrition) and overnutrition (overweight and obesity) occurring simultaneously. In general,
people in lower-income groups around the world are at higher risk of suffering malnutrition
in any form.
By Susan Steinhagen, Nestlé