FILE PHOTO: Nestle logo is pictured on the door of the supermarket of Nestle headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, February 13, 2020. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo
Major companies are joining hands and has pledged to save the planet by pledging on ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions. This is in regard to the growing demands of the people for the major companies to put more effort in combating climate change.
With the growing demands of people worldwide for major companies to step up efforts in combating climate change, Nestle has decided, the same as other companies like Microsoft and Amazon, to pledge and take on ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions.
Global Climate Change
Human activity is reshaping our planet. The production of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel emissions has affected the rapid environmental change at a rate never seen before, and it's our fault.
Unless we do something about it, Earth will continue to change in a way that humans wouldn't like. It is like investing in insurance, the sooner we do something about climate change the better chance we have to prevent the impacts of our rapidly warming world.
About 6 out of 10 Americans now are "alarmed or "concerned" about climate change, a number that has more than doubled than the past five years. People from different walks of life such as students, teachers, communities of faith, and health care professionals have rallied on the streets to demand action from the government.
In response, governments have worked together and came up with the Paris Climate Change Agreement in 2015 to reduce worldwide emissions. Almost 200 companies have pledged to reduce emissions and to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
To mention a few of these companies, Amazon and Microsoft have also decided to take ambitious targets to achieve carbon neutrality. While Nestle vows to plant 3 million trees for the same reason.
Nestle's Reforestation Project
Consumers and investors have demanded the major companies to step up their efforts to fight the climate change. Executives from Nestle SA has confirmed that it has decided to plant 3 million trees in Mexico and Brazil in the next year and a half to lessen their carbon emission.
In September, Nestle signed a UN-backed pledge aimed at limiting the global temperature rise. In an effort to prioritize renewable energy, alternative packaging and materials, and carbon absorption, Nestle has decided to adjust its business.
The first phase of Nestle's reforestation project will cost about $45 million for planting alone, given that the cost per tree is $1 to $15.
According to the company's Chief Executive for Americans, Laurent Freixe, the project would be a starting point for further efforts to protect nature and sustainability particularly in Mexico, where they source their cocoa, coffee, sugar, and dairy products.
With the help of One Tree Planted-a non-profit company, they will be able to identify which types of trees to plant and where; with Mexico's southeastern states of Tabasco and Veracruz among the options.
Magdi Batato, Nestle's head of operations said that the carbon captured by the first million trees would eventually be enough to offset the emissions of a coffee-processing plant.
The coffee-processing plant which costs $154 million is expected to process 20,000 tons of coffee and employ 250 people directly. Nestle targets this factory to be a model among their other factories in its use of technology, automation, and clean energy.
The project was announced in 2018 by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the first major investment announcement under hid administration. It is also a source of direct and indirect jobs that will become Nestle's top coffee producer,
Now it is our job as humans to prove that we can do something good for our environment to prevent climate change and make 2020 the year we took back our planet.
