The company agreed to seek “sustainable” sources for its palm oil and to implement better supply chain management. It pledged to fully address the issue by 2015—but without aggressive monitoring on the part of a neutral organization, it’s difficult to determine whether Nestlé is abiding by its own promises. The Union of Concerned Scientists also expresses concerns about the greenhouse gas emissions associated with palm oil production in Nestlé’s supply chain.

5) Water exploitation

California is the latest victim of Nestlé’s highly profitable bottled water division, but it likely won’t be the last. At NPR in 2013, Thomas Andrew Gustafson explained why bottle water can’t be produced sustainably, but it hasn’t stopped Nestlé and other firms from getting involved in the multibillion dollar industry. The “water footprint” behind a single bottle can be as much as seven times higher than the actual content of the bottle, a chilling thought for environmental advocates.

In California, Nestlé bottles water in desert regions of the state that are already struggling with water shortages, and it refuses to disclose how much it processes at its facilities. In Wisconsin, the firm became involved in a protracted dispute over pristine water sources, while Nestlé has also made itself extremely unpopular in Oregon. Critics also accuse Nestlé of privatizing what should be a free public resource across the United States.

Reporting on the situation in California, David Dayen at Salon notes that Nestlé gets around water usage restrictions by pumping on reservations, which are not accountable to states because of their status as sovereign lands. The water table, however, adheres to no boundaries, and excessive pumping in one area devastates groundwater reserves in another. California’s aquifers are being too quickly drained to recharge themselves, leaving the state thirsty.

For a dramatic illustration of the effect of excessive groundwater usage, researchers suspect that some of the rise in our oceans’ sea level can be attributed to aquifer depletion. Water is flooding out so quickly that instead of returning to the ground, it’s running out to sea.

The longstanding Nestlé boycott, organized in an era when people had to pass information about civic actions along via telephone, letter campaigns, and other sometimes sluggish communications, illustrates how dedicated anti-Nestlé activists were 40 years ago. Today, the campaign demanding reform may be under #noNestle and scattered across the Internet, but it’s even stronger. Widespread horror over the company’s practices in California may prove to be a tipping point, especially for its bottled water arm.