Unilever Continues Pushing Its Sustainability Standards
By Karla Paris
Climate change and sustainability are in the forefront of the company’s mind this year and beyond
Just about 75 percent of the world’s largest companies have multiple environmental and social goals in place. During the last few weeks, one of them is making it loud and clear that more must be done. On April 8, Unilever’s CEO, Paul Polman, called for decisive action to tackle climate change in order to secure the future of businesses and people around the world in the years to come.
During the address, Polman notes “climate change has the potential to become a significant barrier to its growth strategy, and that of just about every other company. As scarcity and volatility continue to increase prices of raw materials, businesses will see increased pressure on profit margins, reducing growth and the ability to invest. Not only is tackling climate change compatible with economic growth, it is only by tackling climate change in a systemic way that we can deliver growth for the global economy in the 21st century.”
Related to sustainability, Unilever is not taking a “wait-and-see” approach. The company is being proactive and aggressive, confronting environmental and sustainability issues, as it views them as real-life business problems, not just social issues. Several of the Unilever’s initiatives are backing up this notion.
On April 1, Unilever and its Project Sunlight announced its partnership with Upworthy, a social issues driven content site, which matches the aspirations of Project Sunlight to engage the socially conscious consumer. Also, on April 4, Unilever announced the dramatic results of its Lifebuoy campaign. Lifebuoy’s ‘Help A Child Reach 5’ campaign was developed to eradicate preventable deaths from preventable ailments, such as diarrhea, through teaching hand washing habits. The campaign was launched with a film Gondappa and hand washing initiatives in Thesgora, a village in Madhya Pradesh. The announcement notes an overwhelming drop in the incidence of diarrhea, dropping from 36 percent down to just 5 percent.
Unilever has set clear goals to cut the environmental footprint of its products in half. The company is also striving to help more than 1 billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, and to source 100 percent of its agricultural raw materials sustainably, while enhancing the livelihoods of people across its value chain.
A particular priority for Unilever is ending deforestation — the cause of up to 15 percent of global emissions — according to the IPCC’s latest research. It’s a complex area, but also an urgent one that Unilever plans to aggressively tackle. To date, about 30 percent of global forest cover has been cleared by humans, and a further 20 percent degraded. The rising global demand for key commodities such as palm oil, soy, paper, and beef make this a priority for Unilever.