How can an innovative business model create shared value and improve the environment? A community coffee-processing centre in Jardín, Colombia co-funded by Nespresso is a living example. The new mill has improved the livelihood of farmers and their families by allowing them to double their volume of AAA coffee and increase their net income by 17%. Furthermore, it has reduced water usage by 63% and eliminated water pollution previously resulting from milling.
Every smallholder coffee farmer working with Nespresso tends to have a natural instinct for business. But often, gaps in their knowledge mean they can struggle to manage their farms profitably. Recognising the importance for farmers to develop good business skills, Nespresso partnered with the NGO Root Capital to provide business training to coffee growers in Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
Since 2007, Nespresso has been working with our partners to help coffee farmers in Central America make progress on the AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program. Around 5,000 farmers have benefitted from the project and improved the standard reached on the AAA Program.
In bringing together the three dimensions of coffee quality, sustainability and productivity, the unique Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program needed a new methodology. Working together with key partners including The Rainforest Alliance, Nespresso developed the Tool for the Assessment of Sustainable Quality (TASQ™), to manage the implementation of the Program with coffee farmers.
Nespresso Club Members in Sweden and Finland can recycle their used capsules via their national recycling schemes. They simply bring their used capsules to any of the 10,000 packaging recycling stations in Finland and 5,800 in Sweden. They can also use the collection containers for metal available in many buildings. The process is simple and convenient, as these are the same stations where people deposit other recyclable items.
Nespresso focuses on making it as easy as possible for our Club Members to return used capsules for recycling. We first explore national packaging recovery schemes. Where this is not possible, we have developed our own recovery systems, so that we can collect and retain used capsules for recycling. In 2012, 25 markets had systems in place to collect used capsules.
In France, Nespresso co- founded the Club du Recyclage des Emballages Légers en Aluminium et Acier (or CELAA – Club for Aluminium and Steel Light Packaging) in 2009. As part of CELAA, Nespresso is implementing new technology solutions to recycle small-scale aluminium packaging, including used capsules.
Since 2005, Nespresso has been using a scientific process called life cycle assessment (LCA) to measure and understand our environmental performance. The LCA for a cup of Nespresso coffee showed that the biggest impacts for climate change come from growing the coffee and using a Nespresso machine.
In 2011, Nespresso commissioned Quantis, a team of world-leading experts in the field of environmental life cycle assessment, to conduct an LCA comparative study. This study aimed to understand the environmental performance of a cup of espresso made from different capsules used in a Nespresso machine.
While efforts to improve our environmental performance are focused on the areas of greatest impact (machine use and coffee growing), Nespesso is looking at news ways to improve in every other aspect of our business.
Nespresso has brought together specialists from internal R&D teams and machine manufacturers to design more innovative, high-performing and energy efficient machines for our Club Members and Business Customers.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies show that one of the biggest climate change impacts happens when growing the coffee. As a result, Nespresso is implementing projects to improve the environmental impact of coffee cultivation.