20 Business Circle
January 3-9, 2022 l www.vir.com.vn
Nestlé Vietnam has just been
named the most sustainable
enterprise in Vietnam. What
do you think made you No.1
for this sustainability award?
This is the third year Nestlé
Vietnam has been named
among the most sustainable
companies in Vietnam by the
Vietnam Business Council
for Sustainable Development
and the first year it has been
named No.1, something we
are extremely proud of.
I think we have earned this
award by the work we have
done and by the commitments
we have made for the future.
On one hand, our holistic
approach to sustainability
has long set us apart. A lot of
companies have flagship pro-
grammes on a particular facet
of sustainability. All of these
are important in their own
right, but Nestlé has been pur-
suing sustainability through
several wide-ranging projects
that support and reinforce
each other.
Nestlé is one of the few
companies that have been
pursuing sustainability based
on the 17 Sustainable Devel-
opment Goals of the United
Nations. While we cannot
support each goal to the same
extent, it is a framework to
channel our thinking and con-
tributions to drive down pov-
erty levels, improve health,
and safeguard the planet.
On the other hand, we
have made some very strong
commitments in 2021, for
example, by becoming the
first company in Vietnam to
announce plans to become
plastic neutral by 2025.
This is a massive commit-
ment for only three years.
What roadmap will you fol-
low to achieve it?
This is still a moving plan
but we are confident we can
do it by reducing plastics,
establishing partnerships to
collect plastics, and creating a
market for orphan plastic.
We have already made sev-
eral commitments to reduce
plastics in our products. For
example, last year, we decid-
ed to make any plastic in our
packaging in Vietnam recycla-
ble – and we are now around
95 per cent to completing it.
We are also putting our
products under the micro-
scope to reduce our plastic
consumption by as much as
33 per cent through research
and development. We are
already making headways,
for example, we have reduced
the plastic content of our La
Vie bottles by 10 per cent by
making them thinner and the
caps smaller.
However, being recyclable
is not the same as being recy-
cled and there is a dire need
for the appropriate systems for
collection and reuse. We are
supporting this by partnering
with companies like TetraPak
(for Milo) to see how we can
collect back our packaging
and repurpose them into use-
ful things. We are also looking
for partners who can find a use
for orphan plastic.
For instance, in 1,500
schools we encourage children
to bring back empty cartons.
We segregate the plastics and
remake them into basketballs
and benches for the schools
and communities. This also
helps educate children about
the importance of recycling.
If they start acting now with a
sense of purpose and respon-
sibility, the future will be in
better hands.
At the same time, regenera-
tive agriculture takes things
a step further than net zero.
How are you promoting this
new approach in Vietnam?
Unfortunately, so much
damage has already been
done to our environment that
simply putting back what we
Dual crowns for Nestlé
in sustainability and HR
In probably the most challenging year in decades, Nestlé Vietnam has maintained an implacable drive
towards sustainability and people-centric operations, earning recognitions as the most sustainable
company and the best place to work in Vietnam. Binu Jacob, CEO of Nestlé Vietnam, shared with VIR’s
Tom Nguyen what initiatives took the company to the top.
take out is no longer suffi-
cient – we need to regener-
ate our resources by putting
back more.
Agriculture is the sec-
ond-largest source of green-
house gas emissions and
accounts for 60-70 per cent of
Nestlé Group’s emissions. As
the largest food company in
the world, if we decide to only
procure raw materials sourced
through regenerative agricul-
ture, farmers will change.
Obviously, this cannot be
done overnight, but we have
already made a commitment
that by 2050, we would only
source products that comes
from regenerative agricul-
ture. In the short term, we are
shooting for 25 per cent by
2025 and 50 per cent by 2030.
Vietnam is our single larg-
est source of coffee and we are
already integrating regenera-
tive agriculture into our supply
chain here. Our partner farms
in Dak Lak and Dalat now
intercrop with acacia, pepper,
or avocado. It is also part of
the education and support we
provide local farmers under
our NESCAFÉ Plan. It is built
into the pragmatic farming
skills we teach through our
“farmer train farmer” pro-
gramme. Interestingly, 30 per
cent of our farmer trainers are
women sharing their personal
success with our methods at
their farms.
This education is done in
collaboration with the West-
ern Highlands Agriculture
and Forestry Science Insti-
Nestlé Vietnam supports recycling in
1,500 schools across Vietnam
tute, with whom we have also
distributed 56 million coffee
plantlets in the last 10 years to
farmers, which are high-yield
and disease resistant, devel-
oped specifically for local
weather conditions.
The best part is, farmers
can make 30-100 per cent
more income by adopting
regenerative practices and
while their immediate cof-
fee output may drop a little,
it improves the quality of
the yield and will draw more
people into farming.
Nestlé Vietnam has also been
named as the No.1 Best Place
to Work in 2021 in Vietnam
by Anphabe, in a particular-
ly difficult year for employ-
ment. What do you think has
earned you this award?
Nestlé has always been
very people-centric. We
have higher loyalty levels
and people stay with Nestlé
longer than with most other
companies.
Like in any crisis,
COVID-19 presented busi-
nesses with a choice between
their people and financial tar-
gets – and we kept our people
priorities.
Of course, we have had
many initiatives each week
such as wellness activities
and we introduced six clubs
during the pandemic to keep
people connected and posi-
tive. But most importantly, our
people-centricity was felt a lot
more across our organisation
during the pandemic.
Every morning, before
anything else, we discuss
the safety and wellbeing of
our people. Almost every
week, we were doing town
halls to listen to our people
and learn what their pain
points are. We have created
an entire task force to source
vaccines for our people and
shared our progress and out-
looks regularly.
When we had a COVID-19
outbreak at one of our facto-
ries, we paid for the best treat-
ment for all involved. We paid
VND25 million ($1,000) after
each patient, even third-party
workers, to transfer them to
private hospitals.
It was not about the mon-
ey; it was about the lives and
I think many of our employ-
ees felt rather than just heard
that we are focused on their
wellbeing and that is what
has gained us this recognition
as the Best Place to Work in
Vietnam.
How are you planning to
retain this position?
We are currently rethink-
ing the workplace of the
future. We have set up a team
of young people to share with
us what the ideal workplace
would look like for them. It
is a way to get us to leave our
comfort zones
The team has already come
back with some crazy ideas,
which I love. We start from
this angle and whittle down to
what is practical and possible
– and what is inclusive for all
ages. Meeting intergeneration-
al expectations post-pandemic
will be the single biggest chal-
lenge that leaders have faced
in the last 10 years. Finding
the answer and inciting all of
our people to step out of their
comfort zones, change, and
grow will help us remain the
best workplace in Vietnam.
A recurring theme in your
sustainability activities is
empowering women, which
you built into the NESCAFÉ
Plan and several other initia-
tives with the Vietnam Wom-
en’s Union. What are you
doing to ensure equality with-
in your own organisation?
Globally, women earn 25
per cent less than men for
the same jobs in the corpo-
rate world, at Nestlé Vietnam
they actually earn a little bit
more. This has always been
in our DNA, so much of the
discussion about equality at
the workplace and equal pay
is a little foreign to us. We
have never seen it like that
inside Nestlé.
This is not only true for
payments. If you look at my
own management team, 50
per cent are women, and it is
the same at the level below
me. Vietnam is one of our best
success stories worldwide of
women’s empowerment and
equality. To some extent, this
is also cultural as Vietnamese
women are stronger. They are
more determined and hard-
working, so why should they
not reach high?n