Unilever aims safe drinking water for all
Unilever, the world’s leading consumer products manufacturer, targets to provide safe drinking water to 10 million Filipinos by 2020 in partnership with non-government organizations as part of the company’s Sustainable Living Program (SLP).
On Thursday, Unilever signed a memorandum of agreement with micro enterprise organization Tulay sa Pagbabago (TSP) or Bridge to Progress, which provides financing to poor Filipinos.
Under the agreement, Unilever will supply Pureit, a water purifying equipment to TSPI at R5,500 or 10 percent cheaper than its regular price. The 5-step filtration treatment water purifier is specifically built with storage capacity of 21 liters of water but it can purify a maximum of 3,000 liters of water from all sources of water.
TSPI Executive Director Eduardo A. Mendoza said its focus is to fight against poverty by supporting the livelihood of productive farms to at least uplift these people from abject poverty. TSPI has 147 branches and 180,000 members.
“We intend to roll out to our 147 branches and we have 180,000 clients so that should be a good scale,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza said that TSPI supports a product like Unilever’s Pureit because while it has nothing to do with the farmers or the poor, “We know they are very vulnerable and if a family member gets sick and if they don’t have money they will draw from their enterprise or their livelihood so we have to keep the goose that lays the golden egg healthy and strong. So Pureit is risk protection health and keep their small enterprises from shutting down.”
This 5-step filtration process of Pureit does not do simple filtration but it disinfects or kills the bacteria in the water.
Brian Duruin, Unilever Business Unit Head for Pureit said the agreement with TSPI is the first among its existing other 8 NGO partners.
Unilever’s target though is to protect 10 million lives based on a family of 5 by 2020. Its program though has already disposed 20,000 units of Pureit in 20 provinces including some areas in Quezon City. These units are already protecting 100,000 lives in remote areas and some in the Quezon City areas with safe drinking water.
Beneficiaries through the microfinance NGOs have the option to pay within 18 months or R120 each for 50 weeks. Others have longer term payments of 100 weeks. Purified water ends up 60 percent cheaper than water from water refilling station because a 5-gallon of water will cost only R9.50 as against R35 in the water refilling station.
As of today with 20,000 units installed equivalent to R110 million in loan portfolio through its 8 micro finance partners of which TSPI is the biggest.
Actually, Duruin said Unilever is just barely scratching the surface as there are at the very least 20 million Filipinos with terrible access to safe drinking water.
To make a big impact, Unilever intends to sign up deals with its other partners to make Pureit more accessible to more people in the remote areas. Duruin said that Unilever has other Pureit models being sold in the retail stores but of smaller capacity.
This program, which was first launched in India in 2004, is part of Unilever’s global goal of sustainable living, which now covers 13 countries including India where safe drinking water is also a big challenge. The Philippines was its latest addition among these countries. The filtration units are imported from India although it has also manufacturing plants in China and Vietnam.
Unilever Philippines started retailing Pureit in 2014 in the appliance stores in the country but it only attracted the middle-class market because the price was a big put down. To make a big impact, Unilever has specially built a model fit for the low income and introduced it in partnership with micro finance organizations, which extend loans to this market at very low interest rate.
“Microfinance NGOs still charge interest but they are nowhere close to loan sharks,” said Duruin.
Unilever has already formed its SLP business model six years before the UN Sustainable Development Goals initiative was launched. In 2010, Unilever committed to double its strategy.
In supporting the SDG, Unilever under its Global CEO Paul Polman has made it mandatory that the company’s brands must have a purpose that impact on the community. That social impact purpose must not only be a certain division of Unilever but imbedded in each of the brands from marketing, production, sourcing and sales to make it authentic and sustainable.
“This is the only way to grow,” said Benjie Yap, Unilever vice president for customer development.
In 2014, Yap said, Unilever assessed its SLP program and found out that brands that were aligned with sustainable program grow 30 percent faster than those with no sustainability purpose.
“So our brands are sustainable and have attained scale compared to direct donations or charity works of the company,” Yap said.
Unilever’s top 8 priority program brands include Knorr, which envisions to eliminate zero malnutrition by 2020; Kabisig Sari-Sari Store (already has 100,000 small stores being mentored); Dove for self-esteem project; sachet recovery (which already generated millions of sachets) sustainable sourcing and livelihood; Domex sanitation program; small holder farmers; and teen week or antibullying.
“Today all brands are mandated to be aligned with SDG goals, our brands are required to have a meaningful impact to the country that we are in today,” said Ed Sunico, Unilever vice president for sustainable business and communications.
He stressed that “sustainability and growth are not in conflict. This is a winning model, we will grow as a business.”