Multinationals have been making all sorts of carbon neutrality claims in recent years. Take, for instance, Nestlé's well-known chocolate bar brand, KitKat, which stated in 2021 that the candy bar would "become carbon neutral by 2025." But the offset was partially based on tree planting, which is unreliable and difficult to measure, with very little transparency about the level of emissions reduced or offset. In other words, Nestlé made sustainability claims without concrete evidence (some call this a 'greenwashing' scam).
"To support this, KitKat will help farmers plant five million shade trees where it sources its cocoa by 2025," Nestlé wrote in a press release in April 2021. They stated very little information about upgrading supply chain operations with direct carbon emission reductions, instead focused on shady claims like "restoring forests."
Nestlé, who sees the whole ESG, or Environmental, Social, and Governance, movement backfiring, as BlackRock CEO Larry Fink abandoned the term "ESG" just days ago, has dropped plans for a carbon-neutral KitKat bar by 2025, according to Bloomberg.
A spokesman for the Swiss food giant said the company is "shifting toward in-house programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and supply chain." So no more planting trees in third-world countries?
Besides Nestlé, other companies such as airline EasyJet Plc and Gucci owner Kering are backing away from their carbon-neutral claims to avoid 'greenwashing' controversies. Consumer groups have alleged that many of these companies have misled customers into believing their products are better for the environment.
"If you're a consumer in the supermarket, you have no way to know how much of a carbon neutral claim is from actual emissions reductions and how much is from these dubious carbon-offsetting projects," said Emma Calvert, a food-policy officer at European consumer-rights organization BEUC. Her organization wants to ban "carbon neutral" claims on food.
Nestlé abandoning its "net zero climate footprint" KitKat claim through tree planting is yet another sign of virtue signaling by corporations in their efforts to save the planet is backfiring.
