Sustainability by Design

Dr Christian Detrois
Sustainability & Novel Packaging
Nestl Research Centre, Switzerland

Nestl at a glance
CHF 92.2 billion in sales in 2013
333,000 employees in over 150
countries
468 factories in 86 countries
34 research, development and
technology facilities worldwide
Over 2,000 brands
1 billion Nestl products sold every day

Nestl in society

Feeding the worlds population

drivers of change
Population growth, ie in
urban areas: from todays
7.1 billion towards10 billion
over the next 50-80 years?

Food vs. nutrition

security: from
under nutrition to
obesity pandemic

Sustainably
feeding the
world
population

Production & climate

change: competition for
land, water and energy

Globalization will further

expose the food system
to novel economic and
political pressures

Consumers looking at food more holistically

Nutrition

Whats in
my food?
Responsible
sourcing

Environmental
sustainability

Consumer
preference
Where
does it
come from?

How
was it
made?

Sustainability by Design

HOW to integrate sustainability across

the entire value chain?
HOW to build sustainability into the
DNA of each new product development?

EcoDesign in the Nestl Product Development

and Introduction process

Cost for change

Conven&onal LCA

Design freedom
Ecodesign

Ecodesign

Ecodesign

Ecodesign

Ecodesign

TIME

Product Development Process

Ecodesign makes LCA cheaper, faster, and more efficient

Which solution has a better environmental

performance?

Environmental performance is not only driven by

packaging

What about drinking a cappuccino?

10

It is not only about greenhouse gas emissions

11

Life Cycle Assessment takes into account

the entire product life cycle

Product Life Cycle Assessment with MultiIndicator Impacts

Greenhouse gas
emissions (kg CO2eq)

Water consumption (m3)

Non-renewable energy &

minerals (kg Sb eq)

Non expert gui

Impacts on ecosphere
(PDFm2year)
Land use (m2year)

Harmonized LCA Methodology

(ISO 14000ff, EU Food SCP Rt, Sustainability Consortium)

Example EcodEx Ice Cream

EcodEx example:
vegetarian meat replacer products vs. meat

Chocolate Center of Excellence, Broc:

Recettes de latelier: Artisan flair Chocolate
Land Use
Pack: 30% / Ingredient: 13%
Fresh Water
Pack: 47% / Ingredient: 9.3%

Impact on Ecosphere
Pack: 21% / Ingredient: 2.6%

Brief Project Description

Understand environmental performance of

new chocolate tablet which has a generous

load of ingredients on top

Benefit & Business Impact

Satisfied consumer preference with better

Non-renewable energy
Pack: 17% / Ingredient 15%

Greenhouse Gas
Emissions
Pack: 17% /
Ingredient: 13.5%

environmental performance

Perfect execution of the iterative ecodesign

process in innovation

Achievements

Validated and reviewed environmental

impact through EcodEX

Packaging: all 5 attributes are better from

New recipe
Old recipe

17% - 47%

Ingredient Supply: 3 out 5 attributes are

better from 13% - 15%

Example: Project Packaging source reduction for

EXTREME cornets

Description
- Optimization of cardboard multipack
(smaller dimensions)
- Energy savings due to replacement of
equipment and more packs per pallet
- Replace outer case by PE shrink film

Status
- Implementation in January 2012
- 33 tons board material savings / y
- 260 pallets less needed for finished
products /y

Urs Schenker, Nestl Research Center

02/10/2013

p. 17

Reducing environmental impact of packaging

Structural design, material &

process improvement
Optimized design and
headspace
Product densification
Shelf-life optimization

Less is more BUT underpacking

= Waste of Food

= Waste of Packaging Material

LCA a PET example for 1.5l Water Bottles

Stand-up pouches at ~17 g
versus PET bottles at ~25.5 g
Consumers responded very
positively to the Eco refill
concept
BUT
no environmental benefit !!
Less product / pallet =>
more trucks on the road
Much more secondary
packaging (corrugated)
Not recyclable

20

Data - components
PET bottle

Pouch

S. Gueye - FST, SNP

Oct-14

p. 21

Data - conversion
PET bottle

Pouch

S. Gueye - FST, SNP

Oct-14

p. 22

Key aspects of Sustainability by Design

Holistic entire
Value Chain approach

Tools to make fact based decisions

leading to product improvement:

Promoting creative solutions

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