Green sponsor of the month: Nespresso

Accepting the award, Nespresso Head of Sustainability, Jérôme Perez said: “Sustainability is at the heart of what we do. I’m proud of the achievements we have already made in scaling sustainable coffee farming and recycling provision, in enabling industry wide capsule recycling, in reducing the Nespresso carbon footprint per cup and in agroforestry efforts in the coffee producing regions. Innovation and collective actions will help us accelerate in this decisive decade. Businesses must be part of the solutions and Nespresso will continue to focus on being a force for good.”

Among key outcomes cited by WFM were the fact that 93% of Nespresso permanent coffee is now sourced sustainably. Its recycling rate is up by 17% since 2014 and now involves dedicated recycling schemes in 59 countries. In addition, the firm has introduced retirement savings and crop insurance schemes in countries such as Colombia and Indonesia.

For all of its positive efforts, however, Nespresso has not always found it easy to get its message across to sceptical sections of the audience. For this reason, it teamed up with National Geographic in 2019 on a content marketing campaign called Beyond The Bean. Created in partnership with Zenith Media and Publicis Content, 126 pieces of content were created to help tell a story that reinforced Nespresso’s sustainability credentials. These included short-form videos, in-depth articles and social-first content.

Shot and narrated by National Geographic photographer Rena Effendi, the Beyond The Bean content strategy spanned three subjects: People, Planet & Innovation. The People chapter explored reviving coffee regions and helping farmers support their future generations with sustainable yet profitable coffee farms. The Planet chapter focused on sustainable farming, including agroforestry; while The Innovation chapter focused on Nespresso’s ongoing commitment to recycling its coffee capsules.

This content was then dispersed across the National Geographic ecosystem, utilising global and local websites, social media channels and print advertorials. In addition, Nespresso negotiated the rights to produce derivative materials in the form of leaflets, magazines and newsletters to Nespresso’s existing customers. It also summarised the content on its own website, thus linking the partnership to the Nespresso user journey.

The immersive campaign achieved two key goals. Firstly, it increased brand favourability, with an increased number of Nat Geo users agreeing that Nespresso is ‘a sustainable, environmentally friendly and ethical brand’. Secondly, it drove increased Nespresso capsule purchase via the website.

The success of the campaign encouraged Nespresso to extend the activity into 2020. It also persuaded the UK Sponsorship Awards judging team to name Beyond The Bean as the Best Sustainability Sponsorship 2020/21 – against competition from BaxterStorey, Unilever, Smirnoff and Evian.

Footnote: From 2014-2020, Nespresso’s sustainability strategy was managed through a programme called The Positive Cup. With a headline cost of £330m, the company set itself a series of ambitious goals relating to coffee, climate and aluminium. Key results included: a 24% reduction in the carbon footprint of a Nespresso cup of coffee and the planting of 5.2 million trees (working with partners). In his final assessment of the programme, Jérôme Perez said: “We have learnt a lot, yet we know we need to do more and accelerate our journey in this decisive decade to 2030.” Nespresso is currently defining its sustainability roadmap for the future, focused on preserving exceptional coffees, building a resilient and regenerative coffee agriculture system and improving sustainable livelihoods for farmers.