Championing health nutrition and sustainability Unilever

CHAMPIONING HEALTH, NUTRITION AND SUSTAINABILITY

Unilever is a global market leader in food, hygiene and personal care products as well as in most other FMCG sectors. Philip Yorke looks at the company’s exemplary commitment to sustainability and its dedication to helping to improve the quality of life for those in the world’s poorer nations.

Unilever is one of the world’s longest established, premier blue-chip companies with more than 400 brands focused on health and well being. To put things in perspective, every day over two billion people use Unilever products to help them look good, feel good and get the most out of life. The company was founded in the early 1890s and today its product portfolio ranges from nutritionally balanced foods to ice creams, soaps, organic shampoos and everyday household care products. Among its many world-leading brands are Dove, Blue Band, Walls, Hellmann’s, Knorr, Lipton and local brands such as Pureit and Suave.

In 2010 Unilever launched its own ‘Sustainable Living Plan’, which set out a range of targets designed to help the company deliver its key objective of growing its business whilst minimising its impact on the environment. The plan commits the company to a ten-year journey towards sustainable growth. What makes this plan different from others is that it applies right across the value chain. This means that it not only takes responsibility for its own direct operations but also for those of its suppliers. Thus in order to embed and instil sustainability into every stage of the lifecycle of its products, Unilever is working closely with its suppliers to support responsible approaches to agriculture as well as to all its other aspects of production and manufacturing.

Furthermore, Unilever believes that innovation is the key to achieving its goals, and through cutting-edge science it is constantly enhancing its brands’ appeal by improving their nutritional properties, their taste, fragrance and functionality. Currently Unilever invests more than €1 billion every year in research and development and has established laboratories around the world, where its scientists explore new thinking and production techniques and then apply this new expertise to Unilever products.

To underscore Unilever’s success and leadership in this area, the company recently came top once again in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index which evaluates how companies perform against a wide range of sustainability-led criteria. This year Unilever led the Food Producers sector with an overall score of 81 per cent, substantially ahead of the average sector score of just 45 per cent.

Constantly improving the value chain

Unilever is one of the world’s true global giants, with over 200,000 employees and facilities in more than 80 countries. In the UK alone it has annual sales of over €2.5 billion. The volume of sales in this one European marketplace alone is remarkable. For example, over 35 million cups

of PG Tips Tea are consumed every day along with over one million tubs of Flora. In addition, one billion Wall’s ice creams are consumed every year in the UK, and four Pot Noodles are sold every second of the day. Unilever’s personal care products enjoy similar levels of popularity, as do all their well known household care products.

This outstanding success is not only due to the high quality of its products and R&D, but also to the close collaboration that it shares with its suppliers in order to optimise efficiency and savings throughout the entire value chain. Innovation and sustainability remain at the heart of its strategy to constantly improve the value and quality of its diverse range of FMCG products worldwide.

In further support of its goals, Unilever has created policies and guidelines to ensure that it always acts responsibly when it comes to health and nutrition. The ingredients that Unilever uses, the formulations and the way that it markets its brands, can potentially make a big impact on global health. Some of the measures taken by Unilever include the development of a range of low fat, low sugar, low calorie alternatives as well as more ‘active health’ products such as Pro-activ. In addition it encourages a balanced diet with the right amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals as well as helping people to understand the nutritional benefits of its products.

Launch of the Unilever Foundation

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Unilever announced the launch of the Unilever Foundation, which is dedicated to improving quality of life through the provi-

sion of hygiene, sanitation, access to clean drinking water and basic nutrition, as well as enhancing self-esteem. In order to help achieve the foundation’s mission, Unilever has formed strategic partnerships with five leading global organisations that are committed to creating sustainable change worldwide. These include; Oxfam, PSI, Save the Children, UNICEF and the World Food Programme. The key objective of the Foundation is to help more than one billion people improve their health and well-being, and in turn create a sustainable future for all.

Keith Weed, chief marketing and & communications officer at Unilever said, “We live in a rapidly changing world. One where populations are growing, water is becoming increasingly scarce, and where food security is a growing issue. Unilever is committed to addressing the un-met social needs that our business can play a unique role in helping to solve. This is especially true in developing and emerging markets where we have deep roots”

Unilever also says that the challenges of the 21st century are becoming increasingly complex. For example, over one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and more than 3.5 million children under the age of 5 die annually from infections due to poor hygiene and lack of water. In addition, over 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation and an estimated one billion people suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition.

Mr Weed added, “Two billion times a day, someone somewhere uses a Unilever brand. Our global reach and scale, coupled with a deep understanding of what triggers consumer behaviours that can lead to a sustainable future, uniquely enable us to drive long-term scalable and systematic change.”

As a footnote to these activities, the Unilever Foundation is also working with other organisations worldwide by providing a combination of direct funding, expertise, products and employee support that help to address country-specific needs that are primarily aligned with the Foundation’s mission. n