International Travel Retail (NITR) has expressed its pride after confirming it will sponsor and support the inaugural Travel Retail Sustainability week event which is just days away (19-23 April).

Stewart Dryburgh, Nestlé’s International Travel Retail, General Manager, who will be a speaker during the Lead by Example: Sustainable Investments From Industry Leaders webinar on Tuesday 20 April, says the company is embracing a future where environmental issues and sustainability will be critical to daily life.

“We are delighted to be involved with this essential initiative from TRBusiness. It is simply a must in today’s world for brands to be sustainable — it’s a duty to the planet, a need for consumers and a priority for shareholder.

“Nestlé is 100% committed to building a sustainable future for our children and future generations.”

On day one, Nestlé will showcase how its core Smarties brand is becoming completely plastic free when it participates in the first Sustainable Pitch session on 19 April.

LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

“Nestlé’s vision is for none of its packaging to end up in landfill or as litter. The company has a long-term strategy to continually analyse and optimise its packaging portfolio globally, for domestic markets and travel retail.

Smarties has been leading this commitment and was selected as the first Nestlé brand to incorporate no single-use packaging.

“Nestlé’s work, however, goes far beyond packaging as the company seeks to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.

In order to achieve these milestones, Nestlé is taking action across agriculture, its operations and products.

Activities include the planting of 20 million trees each year for the next 10 years; working with farmers on regenerative agriculture; ending deforestation in its primary supply chains by 2022; completing the transition to 100% renewable electricity in the 187 countries where it operates by 2025; and increasing the number of ‘carbon neutral’ brands available to consumers.

Dryburgh commented: ”Travel retail will play an important part in our journey, acting as a global showcase for our brands to the world. It is the perfect platform to demonstrate our sustainable actions directly to a wide range of consumers.

“This includes projects such as the Nestlé Cocoa Plan which strives to make cocoa farming more sustainable, improve the lives of farmers and enhance the quality of Nestlé products.

“Iconic brand Kit Kat (pictured above) was the first global confectionery brand to be sourced from 100% certified sustainable cocoa and, today, all NITR’s travel retail portfolio meets the same criteria.”

He concluded: “There is much else in the pipeline which we look forward to sharing with our travel retail partners and key stakeholders in the months to come. It is incumbent upon us to act now – for our children and generations to come.”