Unilever Reports on First Year’s Progress Against Ground-Breaking Sustainable Living Plan Targets
24 April 2012 - 2:30PM
Business Wire
Unilever has published a report on the progress it is making
towards meeting its Unilever Sustainable Living Plan targets.
The plan, published in November 2010, broke new ground by
committing to take responsibility for the company’s impacts right
across the value chain, from the sourcing of raw materials all the
way through to the consumer’s use of its products to cook, clean
and wash.
As part of the update, Unilever announced that by the end of
2012 it will reach its target of 100% certified sustainable palm
oil covered by Green Palm Certificates, a full three years ahead of
schedule. Whilst this is strong progress, the company
recognises that the Green Palm Scheme is only a step along the road
towards sustainable palm oil, not the end game. Although it will be
even more difficult to achieve, Unilever has now set a new
target of purchasing all its palm oil from certified traceable
sources by 2020. This means it will be able to track all the
certified oil it buys back to the plantation on which it was
originally grown.
To help achieve this goal, it announced that it is in
advanced stages of discussions with the Indonesian government for
investing over €100m in a large processing plant for palm oil
derivatives in Sumatra. This plant will not only cut back on
transport and save money but it will make it easier to trace the
sources of the palm oil used.
Unilever’s performance against its sustainable living plan
targets fall into three categories:
1. Areas where we are making genuinely good
progress, such as:
- Sustainable sourcing – 24% of total
agricultural raw materials now being sourced sustainably, versus
14% in 2010.
- Nutrition – over 90% of Unilever’s
leading spreads now contain less than one-third saturated fat.
- Renewable energy now contributes 20% of
Unilever’s total energy use. 100% of electricity purchased in
Europe is now from renewable sources, and we have increased our use
of biomass to fuel boilers in India and China.
- Safe drinking water – 35 million people
have gained access to safe drinking water from Pureit water
purifier since 2005.
2. Areas where we have had to consider carefully how to reach
our targets, but are now ready to scale up. These include
health and hygiene: Lifebuoy soap’s hand washing programme reached
48 million people by the end of 2011, and new partnerships such as
our ‘train the trainer’ approach in Indonesia will help us to go to
the next level.
3. Areas where we are finding it difficult to make progress
and will need to work with others to find solutions. This
applies particularly to targets that require consumer behaviour
change, such as reducing the use of heated water in showering and
washing clothes, or encouraging people to eat foods with lower salt
levels.
Unilever CEO, Paul Polman said:
“In a world where temperatures are rising, energy is costing
more, sanitation is worsening and food supply is less secure,
companies can no longer sit on the sidelines waiting for
governments to take action. We have to see ourselves as part of the
solution to these problems. In Unilever, we believe that our future
success depends upon being able to decouple our growth from our
environmental footprint, while at the same time increasing our
positive social impacts.
“Many of our goals look as daunting now as they did when we
announced them, but you have to set uncomfortable targets if you
are to really change things. Sustainable growth will be the only
acceptable model of growth in the future, which is why we have put
the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan at the heart of our business
strategy. And far from being a hindrance to our progress, we are
now seeing increasing evidence that it can drive business growth.
Unilever grew well in 2011, but what is encouraging is that the
brands which put sustainability at the centre of their
propositions, like Lifebuoy soap or Persil/Omo Small & Mighty,
grew faster than the average.
“It is also becoming ever clearer that we cannot tackle the big
issues alone: much of our progress to date has come where we have
worked with others. And at the end of the day, if we achieve our
own sustainability targets but no one else follows, we will not
have been truly successful. For that reason we are working with
other organizations such as the Consumer Goods Forum, World
Economic Forum, World Business Council for Sustainable Development,
governments, NGOs and others to drive change. At Unilever we
believe collaboration will become the only way of doing business in
the future.”
For more information and the full first year progress report,
please visit www.unilever.com/sustainable-living
NOTES
About Unilever: Unilever is one of the world’s leading
suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with operations in over 100
countries and sales in 190. Consumers buy 170 billion Unilever
packs around the world every year, and our products are used over
two billion times a day. We have more than 171,000 employees,
and generated annual sales of €46.5 billion in 2011.
Working to create a better future every day, we help people feel
good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services
that are good for them and good for others. Our portfolio includes
some of the world’s best known and most loved brands including
thirteen €1 billion brands, and global leadership in most
categories in which we operate. The portfolio features iconic
brands such as: Knorr, Hellmann’s, Lipton, Dove, Vaseline, Persil,
Cif, Marmite and Pot Noodle.
Unilever has led the Food Producers sector in the Dow Jones
Sustainability World Indexes for 13 consecutive years. We are
included in the FTSE4Good Index Series and attained a top
environmental score of 5, leading to inclusion in the FTSE4Good
Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index. In 2011 Unilever led the
Climate Counts Company Scorecard and was named #1 in the list of
Global Corporate Sustainability Leaders according to the latest
survey findings from GlobeScan Inc. and SustainAbility Ltd.
Unilever Sustainable Living Plan
In November 2010 the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan was
launched. Unilever publicly committed to a ten year journey towards
sustainable growth, with around 60 specific targets embedding this
new thinking into our business. What makes the Unilever Sustainable
Living Plan different is that it applies right across the value
chain. Unilever is taking responsibility not just for its own
direct operations but for their suppliers, distributors and –
crucially – for how consumers use brands like Dove, Knorr, Lipton,
Lifebuoy and Pureit.
The plans sets out that by 2020 Unilever will:
- help more than one billion people
improve their health and well-being;
- halve the environmental footprint of
the making and use of our products;
- source 100% of our agricultural raw
materials sustainably
For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit
www.unilever.com.
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