Do we like Nestlé?
World's largest food and drinks maker (Nescafé, KitKat, Nespresso, Purina, Perrier), based in Switzerland.
Our score: 4 out of 10. Not yet. There is real climate progress, but also repeated trust problems: illegal water treatment, child-labour claims, an infant formula probe and 16,000 job cuts.
Nestlé is the giant behind KitKat, Nescafé, Nespresso, Purina and Perrier. Its boss since September 2025 is Philipp Navratil, a 25-year Nestlé man who started as an internal auditor and ran Nespresso. He took over after Laurent Freixe was dismissed over an undisclosed relationship with an employee.
Navratil's turnaround plan, announced in April 2026, narrows the business to coffee, petcare, nutrition and snacks. FoodNavigator reported it would cut about 16,000 jobs, roughly 6% of the workforce. In October he said US shoppers are cash-strapped, though Q3 results beat expectations.
The biggest recent scandal is the water. Nestlé Waters admitted in 2024 to using banned filters and UV treatment on mineral waters, and paid a €2m fine to avoid legal action. A French Senate inquiry then said the government covered it up, and a judicial fraud inquiry opened in 2025. Nestlé says its current filters are allowed.
Cocoa and babies are the old sore spots. In 2021 the US Supreme Court threw out a suit accusing Nestlé and Cargill of buying cocoa from farms using child slave labour. It ruled on jurisdiction, not on the facts. In February 2026 the Paris prosecutor included Nestlé in a probe into allegedly tainted infant formula.
On the plus side, Nestlé's 2025 report shows a 20.38% cut in emissions against 2018, ahead of its 20% target. Some of its reporting counts removals inside its own value chain, which critics note flatters the numbers. Our score is 4: good climate work, but too many integrity problems for us to back it.