A program to define and align a community strategy
Listening, convening, and collaboration to unite activities across functions and qualify the value of trust in communities.
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Overview
Nestlé UK & Ireland operates across 13 sites, with a significant footprint in York. As part of its sustainability and commercial strategy, Nestlé aims to earn the trust required to be a genuine force for good while continuing to grow its business.
The Regenerate Communities initiative was designed to strengthen relationships and create shared value across three interconnected stakeholder groups:
- Employees – building pride, engagement, and purpose
- Local communities – families, citizens, and organisations around Nestlé sites
- Value chain partners – customers and suppliers collaborating on shared social impac
We are able to bring many organisations together from various different industries to collaborate and learn together so that we can all collectively achieve our climate and sustainability goals.
Strategic Ambition
- Build trust and pride through meaningful community engagement
- Create a self-sustaining model, starting with a York pilot replicable across all UK sites
- Align community activity with commercial relationships, including customers such as Sodexo, Tesco, and the NHS
- Demonstrate social value in areas including green skills, food waste, and mental health
The Opportunity
Nestlé already supported valuable local initiatives, from biodiversity partnerships with Wildlife Trusts to food redistribution through FareShare.
The opportunity was to align and amplify efforts across the business.
- Unify the vision across HR, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Sustainability, and factories
- Identify core community needs, that aligned with capabilities and priorities of Nestle
- Evaluate and explore measuring trust, turning qualitative insight into a strategic leadership input.
How we were of service
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Production
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Engagement
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Insights
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Strategy
Advisory & Programme Coordination
Providing strategic guidance and end-to-end coordination to build the foundations of a connected, regenerative community approach.
- Programme co-design and ongoing management
- Strategic advisory support
- Thematic research and leadership-ready presentations
Engagement & Alignment
Bringing people together across functions and sites to align purpose, surface insight, and shape early direction.
- Facilitated workshops to define vision, purpose, and ambition
- Cross-functional engagement across factories, offices, and regional teams
One-to-one and group engagement with key contributors
Mapping, Insight & Decision-Making Tools
Creating clarity, visibility, and practical tools to support leadership understanding and future decisions.
- Stakeholder mapping across York communities, factories, and ecosystems
- Value-chain and ESG alignment tools
- A live database of community organisations and social value solutions.
From Insight to Strategic Direction
Turning insight into coherence and momentum.
- Regenerate Communities Manifesto – a staff-led vision of what “good” regeneration looks like
- Facilitated listening sessions to prioritise community aspirations across Pride, People, and Planet
- A Decision-Making Matrix aligning Net Zero, Nature, and Social Impact goals with real community needs
- Identification of shared strategies with customers, including green education and SME mentoring.
Results and Value Created
Strategic Clarity
Consolidated visibility of community activity created clarity, reduced duplication, and strengthened leadership understanding across teams, sites, and functions.
Leadership Confidence
Evidence-based insight increased confidence for individuals presenting to senior leaders, enabling clearer narratives and stronger decision-making.
Faster Decision-Making
Structured mapping and synthesis accelerated leadership decisions by replacing fragmented information with coherent, trusted insight.
Operational Alignment
Cross-functional teams aligned around a shared vision, language, and priorities for community and social value activity.
Reduced Risk
Clearer visibility of customer priorities and shared challenges enabled earlier collaboration, improved transparency, and reduced delivery and reputational risk.
Foundations for Trust
Listening-led engagement provided early indicators of community confidence, supporting trust-building around Nestlé sites.
Strategic Readiness
The York pilot created a replicable foundation for scaling a regenerative community strategy across all UK sites.
Commercial Relevance
Community insight connected social value activity with customer relationships, strengthening the foundations for future collaboration.
Need clarification?
What is a Community of Practice
A Community of Practice is a trusted, peer-led group where people working on similar challenges learn together, share experience, and collaborate to turn insight into action.
Where can Community of Practice fit in my organisation's strategy?
It can support commercial, sustainability, procurement, supply chain, innovation, people, or transformation strategies, bridging silos and accelerating progress on shared priorities.
Communities of Practice can be created to bring together senior leaders, professionals across functions, departments, territories, supply chains and value chains.
Who can join the Community of Practice?
Depending on your goals, participants typically include sustainability, procurement, operations, commercial, marketing and communications, and innovation leaders from internal teams, customer, supplier, and partner organisations.
How is a FuturePlanet Community of Practice different from a network or working group?
Unlike informal networks, FuturePlanet Communities of Practice have clear purpose, facilitation, shared principles, transformation pathways and a structured rhythm that turns learning into practical outcomes.
What outcomes can we expect
Organisations gain clarity, save time, reduce risk, strengthen relationships, build capability, and accelerate progress on complex sustainability and transformation challenges.
How long does a Community of Practice run for?
Communities of Practice can run indefinitely, and once created it makes sense to plan for a minimum of 3 years - or the duration of a project. This requires a clear pathway a defined rhythm of sessions, touchpoints, and shared outputs, and can be extended or scaled.
How much does it cost to co-produce a Community of Practice?
Costs vary depending on scope, scale, and duration. We typically co-design programmes aligned to your goals, budget, and desired outcomes.