Promoting Sustainable living Unilever

promoTing susTainable living

Unilever, the global giant selling fast-moving consumer goods under 400 brand names, is striving to make sustainable living commonplace. Last year, the company launched another set of green initiatives and intensified its efforts to promote sustainability in everyday life. Romana Moares reports.

Unilever, the British-Dutch transnational consumer goods company, has a true global footprint. With its portfolio of food and beverages, cleaning agents, beauty products, and personal care products used by 2.5 billion people every day, Unilever’s brands have become a household name in around 190 countries. This gives the group a unique opportunity to create positive change and to promote sustainable living for consumers throughout the world.

In 2010, the company defined the Sustainable Living Plan that sets out to decouple the company’s growth from its environmental footprint, while increasing a positive social impact. The Plan has three main goals: to help more than a billion people to improve their health and wellbeing; to halve the environmental footprint of its products; and to source 100 per cent of its agricultural raw materials sustainably and enhance the livelihoods of people across its value chain.

The Plan aims to create change across the value chain – from operations, to sourcing, to the way consumers use and dispose of the products. At the beginning of 2020, Unilever is well on track towards achieving its ambitious goals.

Responsible partnerships

As global awareness of sustainability and environmental issues increases, so does demand for products that are ecological - from raw materials to recycling. Unilever has responded to this demand in a comprehensive manner - its sustainable sourcing commitments aim to give consumers confidence that the products they buy contain ingredients from sustainable sources.

Unilever has achieved impressive results in this respect. In 2020, the group is expected to reach around 70 per cent sustainable sourcing overall and to reach around 95 per cent sustainably sourced for its 12 key crops. Also, in 2020, all purchased materials – including plastics and mined minerals – will be sourced responsibly in line with the group’s Responsible Sourcing Policy.

Driving sustainability through the supply chain is high on Unilever’s agenda - most recent examples include the agreement with JD Logistics signed in January 2020, to explore smart and sustainable solutions in the supply chain, and to create a framework to identify opportunities for innovation and sustainable growth, from plastic recycling and collection, to state-of-the-art 5G delivery solutions for millions of customers across the world, and develop less carbon intense transportation initiatives.

Marc Engel, Unilever’s Chief Supply Chain Officer said: “The agreement with JD Logistics is an excellent opportunity to drive future-fit supply chain solutions around the world. At Unilever, we are always working to deliver better, more sustainable products for our consumers. Together with JD Logistics, we can leverage

our collective expertise and scale to give consumers better and informed choices and drive sustainable and responsible growth.”

environment-respecting production

In addition to wanting to know where products come from, consumers are also interested in the technology and methods used to produce them. In this respect, Unilever has committed to reduce CO2 emissions from energy used in its factories below 2008 levels by 2020, even although production volumes have significantly increased. By 2030 the group wants to become carbon positive – eliminating all fossil fuels - in its manufacturing.

In September 2019, Unilever announced that its factories, offices, R&D facilities, data centres, warehouses and distribution centres across five continents are now powered by 100 per cent renewable grid electricity.

“The climate emergency is one of the most urgent challenges we’re all facing. Our team have worked hard to secure renewable energy contracts for our sites across five continents, accelerating the delivery of our 100 per cent renewable energy targets,” affirmed Marc Engel.

The impressive achievement has been helped by the investment in energy efficiency programmes, which have led to a reduction

in total energy consumption of 28 per cent, and to the halving of carbon emissions per tonne of production since 2008, as well as the introduction of on-site solar electricity generation.

Sustainable living brands

Together with operations, sustainability has been the core topic of the group’s R&D efforts. The list of products reflecting the increased focus on sustainability is long and extensive and span across all brands.

Recent examples include the group’s compressed deodorants for its Sure, Dove and Vaseline brands. They offer people the same deodorant protection but with 50 per cent less gas and 25 per cent less packaging, cutting the carbon footprint per can by approximately 25 per cent.

Dry shampoos are another innovation targeting GHG emissions and water use. Compared to washing hair with shampoo in heated water, using dry shampoo reduces GHG emissions by approximately 85 per cent.

To meet consumers’ demand for products with more natural ingredients, Unilever continues to grow its naturals and organic portfolio. For example, a number of brands have launched naturals extensions including Dove, Sunsilk and Dirt is Good; and the company has acquired brands that are well known for their use of more natural ingredients such as Seventh Generation, Schmidt’s Naturals, Mãe Terra, and Sir Kensington’s.

Towards a waste-free world

On the packaging front, Unilever has confirmed that by 2025 it will halve its use of virgin plastic, by reducing its absolute use of plastic packaging by more than 100,000 tonnes and accelerating its use of recycled plastic; and help collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells. This commitment makes Unilever the first major global consumer goods company to commit to an absolute plastics reduction across its portfolio.

By 2025, the group is committed to 100 per cent of its plastic packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable. Alan Jope, Unilever CEO, said: “Plastic has its place, but that place is not in the environment. We can only eliminate plastic waste by taking radical action at all points in the plastic cycle.”

“This demands a fundamental rethink in our approach to our packaging and products. It requires us to introduce new and innovative packaging materials and scale up new business models, like re-use and re-fill formats, at an unprecedented speed and intensity.”

Implementing this approach, last year (2019) Unilever announced its participation in Loop™ – an innovative waste-free shopping and delivery model for reusable packaging innovations and refillable product formats. Products are shipped directly to consumers and are then returned and refilled. The system brings together major brands and retailers with the idea of shifting from a model that is ‘disposable’ (where packaging is thrown away or recycled after use) to one that is ‘durable’ (where packaging is reused and any leftover product is either recycled or reused).

Recognised world leader

In light of the continuing social and climate challenges we face, global giants like Unilever have the power to set an example and pave the way for companies to take responsibility for their environmental footprint. And that is what Unilever has been doing with passion.

Unilever’s efforts in the field of sustainability and a greener world have been globally recognised by many awards. Just recently, Unilever has been highlighted as a world leader in corporate sustainability by global environmental non-profit CDP, achieving a place on its ‘A-List’ for climate change, protecting forests and water security.

Based on data submitted through CDP’s questionnaires, the list recognises those companies that are working to develop a sustainable economy through their actions to mitigate climate risk, protect forests and enhance water stewardship. CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely seen as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency.

“We’re delighted to have been recognised as a leader in water security, and the fight against deforestation and climate change,” says Marc Engel. “Unilever is committed to working with NGOs, governments and the wider industry to change the way the world does business.” n

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