In what seems like impeccable timing, Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke delivered a sustainability-focused keynote at the annual City Food Lecture in the U.K., ultimately challenging the accusations made about the company in a damning Oxfam report earlier this week. 

The speech, which focused on the escalating perils of water scarcity, outlined that fresh water overuse poses a serious environmental, political and social hazard. Water is an issue near and dear to his heart, as the Swiss company is the world's No. 3 producer of bottled water, and looking to expand in water-constrained markets such as China.

“It is anticipated that there will be up to 30% shortfalls in global cereal production by 2030 due to water scarcity,” he said. “This is a loss equivalent to the entire grain crops of India and the United States combined.”  What's more, he added, “We could produce what we produce today with half the water we use.” 

In his address, Bulcke cited his company’s reduction of water usage by a third with 1,200 agronomists working with Nestlé to better manage its water use. Bulcke also commented that consumer acceptance of misshapen fruit and vegetables is necessary to cut waste of food products, as well as spoke out against the fuel industry for using food crops to create biofuels. 

Bulcke also took the opportunity to further address the horse meat crisis affecting retailers such as IKEA and manufacturers in Europe, a crisis that compelled Nestle to pull some food products off store shelves last week. “Widespread fraud is being committed by a few across Europe. I understand that many consumers and many of you in the industry feel misled, I feel the same. This should not happen, it is unforgivable. We have let our consumers down.”Continue reading...

The world’s ten biggest food and beverage giants no longer fit the bill when it comes to environmental policies and worker’s rights according to "Behind the Brands," the latest report from international agency Oxfam.  

The “Big 10”—Associated British Foods (ABF), Coca-Cola, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever collectively make $1 billion a day while exploiting millions of people who supply land, labor, water and commodities to make their products and live primarily in developing countries, Oxfam states. 

The report notes that Coca-Cola products are consumed 1.7 billion times per day and 4,000 cups of Nescafé are consumed every second. The Big 10 represent roughly 10% of the world economy.

Oxfam’s report ranks the brands on seven metrics: Land (supply chains free of ‘land grabs’), Women (promotion of women’s welfare), Farmers (treatment and sustainability policies), Workers (fair treatment of agricultural workers), Climate (mitigating greenhouse gas emissions), Transparency (disclosure of information about products and ingredients point of origin) and Water (basic respect of human right to potable water).

“None of the ten biggest food and beverage companies are moving fast enough to turn around a 100-year legacy of relying on cheap land and labor to make mass products at huge profits, with unacceptably high social and environmental costs,” said Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director Oxfam International. “No company emerges with a good overall score. Across the board all ten companies need to do much more.” Continue reading...

While charities are increasingly using not just the web, but social media, to spur donations, cause-wired philanthropy is coming of age for brands, too.

Startups like Social Reality evangelize to major brands the value add of becoming involved, while the powerhouse that is Facebook's Causes campaign has seen massive success connecting brands with consumers around a worthy cause.Continue reading...

Microsoft could spend one billion dollars (say that in your best Dr. Evil voice) promoting the Windows Phone 7 and its Xbox 360 Kinect motion-sensor add-on. With Apple and Google's Droid dominating smartphones, and Sony and Nintendo eating into its gaming revenue, the new products' marketing budget will be spent thusly, according to All Things D:

* Burger King promotion

* Pepsi promotion

* Kellogg’s cereal promotion

* YouTube homepage takeover

* Ad buys on Nickelodeon, Disney sites

* Ad buys on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and Fox’s Glee

* Ad buys on Time Inc.’s People and InStyle

* Times Square event