Nestlé has announced it aims to plant 10 million trees in Australia by 2025, in partnership with Greening Australia, Canopy and One Tree Planted, as part of its Global Reforestation Program, which aims to plant and grow 200 million trees globally by 2030.
Establishing the 10 million trees, a biodiverse mix of native species, will sequester an estimated 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 over a 25-year carbon crediting period. Averaged over the project lifetime, this is equivalent to fuel emissions from more than 25,000 cars each year.
The partnership between Nestlé, Greening Australia, Canopy and One Tree Planted will ensure that the trees are monitored across 28 years as they mature, delivering long-term environmental and economic benefits.
Working in collaboration with local landholders and communities, Nestlé says the 10 million trees will restore local biodiversity, improve water quality and enhance degraded soils.
Trees will be planted in locations linked to regional areas where Nestlé sources its raw materials and will be registered by Greening Australia’s environmental markets business, Canopy, for carbon credits with Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator.
Nestlé Oceania CEO Sandra Martinez said the company’s long-term commitment was about more than just planting trees, and also aimed to conserve local biodiversity, advancing regenerative food and farming systems, delivering environmental and economic benefits to communities.
“Climate change is possibly everyone’s greatest challenge, and is a significant risk to the future of our business. We have set ourselves the target of net zero emissions by 2050 and laid out an ambitious roadmap to achieve this. However, we cannot do this alone – collaboration is key,” Martinez said.
Greening Australia CEO and Canopy Chair Brendan Foran agreed that partnerships were critical in meeting environmental challenges head on.
“This is not just about planting trees, it’s about working together to solve complex environmental problems and restoring our diverse and iconic ecosystems, building habitat for native fauna, improving biodiversity, sequestering carbon and investing in local communities and economies to help people and nature thrive,” Foran said.
200,000 trees planted in 2022
So far, Nestlé’s Reforestation Project in Australia has commenced plantings with private landholders in the Strzelecki Ranges and in East Gippsland, Victoria. As the tail end of the 2022 planting season approaches, Greening Australia is on track to finish planting 200,000 trees across almost 100 hectares – the equivalent of more than three times the size of the Sydney Royal Botanic Garden.
The first plantings will see approximately 65 native species of trees and plants established, including:
• the Eucalyptus Strzelecki, an Indigenous plant to the region that is nationally vulnerable to extinction
• the Allocasuarina littoralis, a key food source for the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
• the Leptospermum lanigerus, commonly known as the ‘woolly tea tree’, a species that
attracts pollinators.
Road to Net Zero
Nestle’s reforestation initiative plays a significant part in the company’s global goal to meet net zero emissions by 2050, outlined in Nestle’s Net Zero Roadmap.
As part of Nestlé Australia’s progress towards 2050, in 2021 it switched to sourcing 100 per cent renewable electricity – avoiding around 73,0002 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
Nestlé Australia is also transitioning 100 per cent of its packaging to be recyclable or reusable and more than 90 per cent of its packaging is now designed for recycling.
