money
he Swiss Centre-Info,
an organization that analyses the social and environmental policies
and practices of transnational corporations recently published
a focus on Nestlé1.
The report notes that Nestlé, third largest in the food
group of transnationals (after Unilever and Philip Morris), has
annual sales of Sfr.57 billion, has an authoritarian and centralized
management style and is recognized for its lack of transparency
and its refusal to dialogue with its partners. (ed.: critics surely!)
Ecologically, the Nestlé products get a failing grade. The report notes that the "products undergo an industrial process and are packaged before sale, environmental burdens exists at all levels of production and distribution...." (aluminum, plastic, energy, etc.) The Nestlé marketing of bottled water involves two problems - the need to preserve and protect hydrographical basins and the bottling uses materials such as glass and plastics, as well as the energy consuming activities of transport, distribution, marketing and need for recycling. Nestlé also gets a failing grade in social utility of products, noting that the company is concentrating more and more on products with high added value, not to mention the social damage of its infant feeding product marketing.
In gender equity practices Nestlé is also at the back of the class. According to some estimates, the report notes, "less than 4% of the authorized executives with power to sign are women. Mrs. Gill Lewis, in charge of human resources and external relations and the highest ranking woman in Nestlé's hierarchy, handed in her resignation in 1994 because of her differences of opinion with Mr. Maucher. (ed.: Nestlé CEO, see the New Internationalist, "In the Dock," January, 1996.) Of the 15 members on the Board of Directors, Nestlé has two women, and this only since 1992."
1. Swiss Centre-Info An Economic, Environmental and Social Analysis, Fribourg, Switzerland, June, 1995. Back