Free Subscription

  • Access daily briefings and unlimited news articles

Premium

Only $39.95 per year
  • Quarterly magazine and digital
  • Indepth executive interviews
  • Unlimited news and insights
  • Expert opinion and analysis

Unilever progresses on Sustainable Living

Environment, sustainable, greenFour years into its Sustainable Living plan, Unilever says it is making a growing and positive impact on its business in terms of growth, cost efficienc,y and resilience for the future.

The manufacturer is on track to meet most of the Unilever Sustainable Living plan goals, which it set in 2010.

According to the company, the consumer element of the reducing environmental impact goal remains more challenging and heavily dependent on wider market shifts.  Despite this, it says it has started to decouple its environmental footprint from its underlying sales growth.

Progress has been made across Unilever’s global factory network, achieving a sustainability target of sending zero non-hazardous waste to landfill. More than 240 factories in 67 countries have now completely eliminated landfill waste.

This includes all three Unilever factories in Australia, where a range of policies and new waste solutions have been implemented to achieve this goal at the North Rocks, Minto, and Tatura sites.

The Unilever team at Tatura has reviewed a number of existing supply arrangements and found alternative ways to safely recycle contaminated glasses, plastics and general waste – everything from oily rags to old light globes are now recycled.

“In just four years, we’ve made significant progress and marked a number of milestones along our sustainable living journey, both here in Australia and New Zealand and abroad,” said Clive Stiff, chairman and CEO of Unilever Australia and New Zealand.

“I’m particularly proud we’ve been able to eliminate waste sent to landfill from our local manufacturing sites however as we reflect on this, we know there is more do to achieve the ambitious social and environmental targets of our Plan. I look forward to working to make sustainable living commonplace in the years ahead.”

More than 55 per cent of Unilever’s agricultural raw materials are now sustainably sourced, reducing the risk to supply – more than half way to its 2020 target of 100 per cent. Unilever is also making significant reductions in CO2 from energy and water in manufacturing, reducing them by 37 per cent and 32 per cent per tonne of production respectively since 2008.

‘Sustainable living brands’ now represent half of Unilever’s growth and are growing twice as fast as its other brands. Unilever brand leading the the way include Dove, Lifebuoy, Ben & Jerry’s, and Comfort, are achieving above average growth, with high single and double digit sales over the past three years.

A full report on the progress of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan can be found here.

You have 3 free articles.