Our environmental strategy has focused primarily on achieving its goals through eco- efficiency in manufacturing. eco-innovation in our products. And through our three sustainability initiatives in agriculture, fish and water.
We have gained considerable experience. And understanding through our work in the sustainability initiatives. And the advances we have made in improving eco-efficiency in our factories. So in 2003, we began to look more carefully at three additional areas:
Ways to connect better with our consumers on environmental care and ensure that their needs and desires are met by our brands.
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We are beginning to understand that people have views in their role as consumers and also views as citizens. We need to take both into account and build this understanding into the way we position our brands, where appropriate.
As a start, we are enhancing our Iglo, Birds Eye and Findus (Italy) frozen food brands with an updated positioning of “natural pioneering food, simply frozen”, using our work on sustainable agricultural and fishing practices, as well as the quality of our raw materials, to support our claim.
Working with Forum for the Future, a UK sustainability organisation, we have run a test workshop in the UK on Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, looking at the brand’s opportunities and vulnerabilities, as seen from the point of view of a non-governmental organisation.
How to make the most of our eco-manufacturing skills across the wider supply chain, including third-party product suppliers, providers of key raw materials and transportation.
Since 1995 we have made considerable progress in reducing the environmental impact of our manufacturing operations and are now building on this experience to work across the wider supply chain with suppliers, contract manufacturers and transport providers.
We have long had systems to ensure we know the source and quality of ingredients and products. Since 2003, we have been working to improve transparency in our requirements. Our Business Partner Code sets out our expectations that key suppliers and other partners adhere to business principles consistent with our own on ten key points covering business integrity, labour standards, consumer safety and the environment.
Our new supplier approval process formally includes assessment and rating of environmental care, health and safety at work and compliance with our business principles. We have trained auditors in place in all regions and are beginning to assess suppliers and co-packers.
This approach is being supported by the formal communication of the Business Partner Code to all raw material and packaging suppliers with whom we have direct relations (first-tier suppliers). During 2005, we will work with our first-tier suppliers to secure positive assurance, and we anticipate that by the end of 2005, a substancial majority of our supplies will have been covered by this process.
Risk assessment will be used to prioritise and focus further on suppliers and third parties whose operations are potentially below standard. Where suppliers do not meet our requirements, we will work with them and agree timetabled improvement plans to achieve the desired level of performance. 3. How to ensure that environmental sustainability is firmly embedded in everyday decision-making.
Environmental considerations are already a part of our innovation project management and capital investment processes and many aspects of our supply chain.
Widening this commitment to encompass other business processes will be a key part of our forward planning from 2004. Environmental considerations are part of the strategy behind our new vitality mission and will be built into our training and awareness programmes, and individual work plans where relevant.
In 2003, work started on awareness training, with the development of communication and training aids focused on marketing. A pilot awareness programme on sustainability was developed for marketers in conjunction with the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry who are experts in business learning processes and sustainability. The pilot was successfully tested in Singapore at the request of local management.
Sustainability is about harmony: if people, now and in the future, can live in harmony with each other and their physical environment, we will achieve sustainable development. Unilever has made much progress in this direction.
With its drive towards sustainable agriculture and fisheries, Unilever is leading competitors, suppliers, and retailers into uncharted territory. The Living Lakes initiative demonstrates the relevance it attaches to the increasing importance of clean water.
The primary business challenge is how to realise change. Ideas that inspire are certainly important, but the crux is how to effect action. Sustainability will be at the core of Unilever’s business only when its customers and partners consider it to be part of their everyday behaviour.
While Unilever, probably more than most companies, takes the environment very seriously, it has yet to make the environment an integral part of all its sourcing, products and logistics. It still has a long road ahead in its quest to contribute to sustainable development. I am proud to be part of that journey, constantly encouraging the company to do better.
Ten years from now, the corporate world should be coloured with a thousand shades of green. It will be a better world, partly because of Unilever’s leadership.
