Leading Together

How Blue Bottle and Nestlé can build for long-term sustainability

At Blue Bottle, we have held sustainability as a core value since our founding. Alongside deliciousness and hospitality, sustainability has informed all aspects of our operations. When Nestlé became our largest investor in 2017, Blue Bottle asked in return if we could contribute to Nestlé with our progressive values and sustainability goals. 

A major opportunity for Blue Bottle came in December 2019, when Nestlé welcomed Blue Bottle’s former executive chair Bryan Meehan to its Creating Shared Value (CSV) Council. The CSV Council is an external advisory group to Nestlé’s executive board advising on long-term sustainability and ensuring positive social and economic impact within Nestlé’s Creating Shared Value business approach. This framework places an imperative on the company to create value for both shareholders and society through products, policies, and operations. 

The Council’s current focus is on improving the nutritional value of products, contributing to the communities where Nestlé employees live and work, reducing Nestlé’s carbon footprint, eliminating waste, and developing sustainable packaging solutions. Blue Bottle saw opportunities to collaborate with Nestlé and prioritize its own sustainability agenda, particularly in the packaging, waste, and sourcing domains.

We recently spoke with Bryan about his first year on the Council. Below is a transcript of the conversation, edited for brevity and clarity. 

With a voice in the CSV Council, how can Blue Bottle help shape Nestlé’s sustainability agenda?

Nestlé has a roadmap to net zero emissions by 2050. Blue Bottle can help Nestlé sustain its focus on the most promising tools for climate change mitigation, like regenerative agriculture, and invest in the innovation, like alternatives to plastic, that will support the business toward its target.

Over the past year, Blue Bottle has been driving the conversation and elevating the priority of regenerative agriculture with the Council. Now, Nestlé has committed to sourcing 50 percent of key ingredients through regenerative methods by 2030—reducing emissions an estimated 3.2 million tons in total—as part of its roadmap to net zero emissions. With ingredient sourcing accounting for more than 70 percent of its in-scope greenhouse gas emissions, Nestlé understands regenerative agriculture is a key action for its sustainability ambitions, and Blue Bottle is helping sustain the focus.

And packaging?

I have been fortunate to join the investment committee of Nestlé’s first sustainability venture fund to invest in sustainable packaging solutions. We search for venture capitalists globally who are leading in these areas so that we can support projects and investors working towards a more sustainable future. I feel that with this opportunity Blue Bottle has had a chance to help shape these investments and ensure that partner VCs also have a strong approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

What can Blue Bottle learn from Nestlé through your seat on the CSV Council?

The other side of being able to encourage and challenge Nestlé through the Council is being able to see what Nestlé is doing that we are not. And to be able to bring those programs back to Blue Bottle. 

Nestlé is ahead of us in many different areas, including zero waste. All Nestlé USA production facilities are certified, and have been for several years. We’ve set zero waste as a goal for half of US retail in 2021, reaching all of US retail in 2023. We will bring these practices to production facilities and our Asia markets in 2022.

In terms of product, I do think Nestlé has proactively responded to the growing demands for gluten-free and plant-based foods. We are looking to incorporate Blue Bottle's climate commitments into our ingredient sourcing beyond coffee. 

Finally, Nestlé is doing a lot of work with cacao suppliers to help improve the welfare of their communities. I am very interested in how Blue Bottle can apply that learning with our green coffee suppliers and will be tracking Nestlé's progress in that area. 

Looking ahead, where do you hope Blue Bottle and Nestlé can lead together? 

It has been really encouraging to discover that Nestlé is listening to companies like Blue Bottle and is open to new thinking, new ideas, including those that are difficult to implement. I also feel very safe speaking my truth and participating in valuable conversations within the Council. Nestlé wants to hear our opinions, learnings, and recommendations, and they are willing to take action as a result. 

Together, we can lead the charge to reduce single-use packaging, find alternatives to plastic such as paper, reduce waste and sequester more carbon, reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides, and be a leader in farmer welfare. I’m optimistic for the future and look forward to seeing where this partnership takes us next.