Companies selling disposables face a big problem. On the one hand, it’s all about convenience, both the product and the disposable packaging; on the other, everyone from governments to environmental groups load on the pressure to be more sustainable. Somehow, even using recycled card doesn’t quite cut it; just look at all the fast food outlet bins overflowing with the stuff.
So, what marks out not just a customer-orientated company, but an ethical one too? Nespresso, maker of clever machines and handy coffee pods, has the answer.
“We set our ambition of providing the highest quality and most sustainable portioned coffee worldwide,” Jean-Marc Duvoisin, CEO Nestlé Nespresso S.A.
I love coffee! I love it in coffee houses, I love it in a restaurant after a fine meal. And I have always tried to experience the same range and quality at home as I can when out and about. Buying the coffee was easy; but making it wasn’t. My kitchen is museum of exquisitely engineered but notoriously temperamental coffee machines. So, when they invented the coffee pod, my day had come: My new Nespresso machine became my pride and joy.
That was four years ago. Then I started to worry.
Ethical buying had become important to me.
And it wasn’t just the coffee that worried me; now I also had dozens of used little aluminum pods to discard each week. Suddenly coffee heaven turned into coffee hell as I faced taking my beloved Nespresso machine to the local dump.
But before doing this, I thought I’d check up on line to see if my habit was as devastating to the environment as I feared. Thank goodness I did! I discovered I was just one of many consumers who shared a guilt about slowly plundering the earth. And I also discovered that those nice Nespresso people who make my beloved little pods were listening and already well ahead of the game!
For example, in 2013, year 4 of Nespresso’s Ecolaboration Sustainability project, 84 percent of coffee came from their AAA Sustainability Program, 80 percent of the aluminum pods were being collected and recycled, and there was a 20 percent reduction in the carbon footprint of a cup of Nespresso. And it’s still improving.
So, why is Nespresso one of my favorite brands? With 100 percent sustainable coffee by 2020, where else do you get such superb coffee with such a clear conscience?
E-commerce everywhere.
Fast. Personalized. Shoppable.
It starts HERE.
By Jacqueline Toms
Marketing Manager, Northern Europe, hybris software
