Nestlé’s Sustainability Push Drives Business Transformation

Nestlé has released its 2025 annual review at its 159th Annual General Meeting, revealing that environmental progress and sustainability achievements could be becoming central pillars of its global business strategy. The company operates in 187 countries with more than 2,000 brands, making its sustainability commitments particularly significant for the food and beverage sector.

The meeting, held on 16 April in Lausanne, Switzerland, saw shareholders approve the annual review, which discusses the company's financial performance, business transformation and sustainability progress.

Environmental targets exceeded

According to Nestlé's 2025 annual review, the company has surpassed its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target. The firm aimed to reduce its emissions by 20% by 2025 and achieved a 24.5% net reduction against its 2018 baseline. This milestone could demonstrate the company's commitment to its longer-term goal of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030, as it progresses towards net zero.

The sustainability achievements come as the company transforms its portfolio across multiple business areas. As of the end of 2025, powdered and liquid beverages make up the largest section of its portfolio at 28.1% of sales. Its pet care brands are responsible for 20.6% of sales and its nutrition and health science products make up 16.0%.

Pablo Isla, Chairman of the Board at Nestlé, says: "Strong corporate governance is the foundation of our company and its future success. Our goal is to continuously strengthen our effectiveness by regularly appointing new independent directors with diverse areas of expertise."

Pablo adds: "Our focus is on driving real internal growth, fostering a performance culture and transforming the company to make it more efficient and digitally empowered."

Sustainable nutrition and healthcare expansion

Nestlé is expanding its focus on nutrition in ways that could align with broader sustainability goals, targeting growth in categories such as:

• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Supplements
• Active nutrition
• Medical nutrition.

Its Health Science division provides medical nutrition for patients who cannot consume food orally, using data on patient preferences to develop its portfolio with familiar food ingredients and plant-based alternatives.

The integration of plant-based alternatives into medical nutrition could represent a significant step towards reducing the environmental impact of healthcare products. In 2025, sales of its Compleat real food tube-feeding solutions were up by about one-third due to Nestlé's optimised marketing, use of influencers, communications with healthcare professionals and campaigns in the medical community.

During 2025, Nestlé targeted growth in its coffee, pet care and nutrition and health business areas. Coffee is Nestlé's largest business, with its three iconic brands: Nescafé, Nespresso and Starbucks. The company has worked on increasing its capacity for faster regional distribution to meet the growing demand for cold coffee in Asia.

Innovation driving sustainable transformation

Nestlé has been collecting data-driven consumer insights to create innovation pipelines for preferred products. The company aims to respond to emerging trends, including modern cooking, new flavours and textures, frequent small meals and nutrition goals across life stages.

Stefan Palzer, Chief Technology Officer at Nestlé, says: "We are leveraging our expertise across categories to develop a global approach to recipe and material specification. By complementing this with digital tools, we are becoming more efficient, while ensuring safety, compliance and preference."

Going forward, Nestlé is planning to unlock the resources needed for investment at scale by generating efficiencies and cost savings by the end of 2027. It is expanding the scope of its growth platforms from 10% to 30% of its sales, expected to deliver high single-digit growth.

Philipp Navratil, CEO of Nestlé, says: "In 2025, we laid a strong foundation for long-term success. As we look ahead, accelerating our progress will be essential to achieving our ambitious financial and sustainability goals."

Philipp adds: "The next few years at Nestlé will be marked by change and our future is promising. I am confident that with our people, capabilities and brands, we are well-positioned to succeed."

The company is building multi-year innovation pipelines, based on strong consumer insights that extend beyond individual products to encompass entire product ranges, as it continues to balance commercial growth with environmental responsibility.