Growing Sustainably : Unilever sets the standard
What do you do when as one of the World's largest FMCG companies you are confronted by the harsh realities of water scarcity, poor hygiene, inadequate nutrition and the fate of farmers who are negatively impacted by the changing climate?
Well, if you are Unilever, you make the decision to up your game and take on more responsibilities. If you are Unilever, you become a champion of sustainable and equitable growth and you work to ensure that others follow suit.
The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan
The Anglo Dutch group which has products on sale in over 190 countries launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan in November 2010. The ambitious and extremely thorough 10 year plan was designed to result in three significant outcomes - help more than a billion people to improve their health and well being, halve the environmental footprint of the Company's products and allow Unilever to source 100% of their agricultural raw materials sustainably. The progress made on the plan is reviewed annually and its finding published.
The Plan represents an unprecedented undertaking, as it covers social and economic, as well as environmental challenges. It covers the company's entire value chain, starting from the point of sourcing of raw materials right up to consumer use and disposal post usage. It also covers every single one of Unilever's products and brands. Additionally, aware that a solo effort will be of little use, the company is working with, NGOs, Governments, its retail partners as well as industry forums such as the Consumer Goods Forum and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, to drive focussed cross sector change.
Champion of Change
At the one year review of the plan, CEO Paul Polman spoke of the excellent progress made towards achieving the outlined sustainability goals, particularly in terms of the company's sustainble agricultural sourcing.
Polman also emphasized that there is much more to be done and called for other companies to join in the drive for sustainable practices stressing that businesses must see the basic truth that "Sustainable, equitable growth is the only acceptable model....growth and sustainability are not in conflict...in fact in our experience, sustainability drives growth"
Unilever is in fact absolute proof of the truth of that statement since less than three years after the publishing of the Sustainable Living Plan, and alongside undoubted progress in their sustainability endeavours, the company also reported a landmark year with an annual turnover topping 50billion euros (£47bn) for the first time as profits increased by 7% to £4.1bn. Unilever's market value rests at approximately £73BILLION.