Strategy
To fulfil our commitments, we have a strategy in place supported by company-wide governance and management structures.
Our values
Over 100 years ago, our founders not only created some of the world's first consumer brands, but also built businesses with strong values and a mission to act on social issues.
We continue to build on this heritage. A commitment to sustainable development and responsible business practice is embedded in our Vitality Mission and Corporate Purpose.
Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of society today without compromising the ability of future generations to survive and prosper. This has become the overarching goal for governments and responsible businesses worldwide.
For us, this means understanding the impact we have on society, both in how we run our operations and across the total lifecycle of our products.
As the sustainability agenda has evolved, so has our approach. We are increasingly seeing the case for integrating the sustainability agenda into our brands. Our Vitality Mission defines the many ways our brands help people get more out of life and is core to our growth agenda. It reaches across our whole organisation and provides the basis for our category strategies. This is taking us in a new direction with new opportunities – but always keeping our values at the heart of everything we do.
Bringing our approach to life
In 2005 we developed a process called Brand Imprint to help our marketing teams consider how social, economic and environmental issues present risks and opportunities for the business.
For each brand a multidisciplinary team conducts a detailed assessment, looking first at the direct and indirect impacts of our products, or their 'imprint', across the value chain. The team then gathers insights about the external influences on the brand's future growth, drawing from consumer and stakeholder research.
Our major brands and categories have now completed a Brand Imprint. This has resulted in important commitments and inspired new ideas for addressing social and environmental issues. For example, the process helped Lifebuoy and Signal/Pepsodent/Close Up develop their social missions.
Our Brand imprint process
The experience we gained through the Brand Imprint process helped us develop the next stage of our approach. In 2008 we finalised a Vitality Framework to help us deliver our Vitality Mission in a systematic and measurable way. It sets out an approach to help brand managers explore opportunities to innovate and improve their brands in three ways:
boosting people's personal vitality and well-being
addressing social issues
reducing environmental impacts.
Our Vitality Framework
Measuring progress
We aim to grow our business in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way through focusing on cutting water consumption and waste, reducing our carbon footprint and obtaining more materials from sustainable sources.
We have developed a set of 'vitality metrics' that measure the environmental element of the framework. There are four indicators covering our priority issues:
greenhouse gas emissions
water
waste
sustainable sourcing.
The metrics seek to measure the impacts of our brands when used by consumers. The first three metrics provide an estimate of each element per consumer use, such as grams of greenhouse gas per single usage occasion of shampoo. The greenhouse gas metric takes into account impacts across a product's lifecycle, including:
direct manufacturing impacts, which we have managed and reported on for more than a decade through our eco-efficiency programme
indirect impacts such as sourcing of raw materials and the quantity of energy and water required for consumer use.
In 2008, we piloted these metrics in selected geographies and with certain products. During 2009 we will be refining these metrics and reviewing how far we can use them to shape future brand development and to set a baseline to track progress across our portfolio.
The Brand Imprint process provides the building blocks for brand teams to understand and assess how sustainability issues impact and are impacted by our products. The Vitality Framework and metrics help integrate sustainability considerations into the everyday business processes of our categories and brands. This helps us drive a common, aligned plan across our brands.
Together, these tools help us integrate social and environmental sustainability into the heart of our business strategy.
The role of the corporate brand
Since 2002, the Unilever brand has become more visible to shoppers, with our corporate logo appearing on the back of all our product packs. All our companies are now called Unilever.
Most consumers still do not connect our individual brands with our corporate brand. But we see the growing importance of ensuring alignment between the two on sustainability issues.
With individual product brands taking a stronger stance on social and environmental issues, consumers will look at the corporate brand for its values and approach. Product brands can only communicate effectively and credibly on these issues if they have a firm foundation in the company's overall approach and commitment.
As the 'corporate brand', Unilever is in a strong position with its long-standing sustainability commitments. In future we will work harder to harness the trust and relationships we have built up through our corporate initiatives, to engage directly with consumers on this agenda and support our individual brands in their efforts.
Progress on our commitments
Our commitments – and the progress we made against them in 2008 – are set out in the table below.
Issue / topic | Our commitments | Progress in 2008 |
Nutrition | Conduct regular review of our portfolio of 22 000 food products via our Nutrition Enhancement Programme. | By end 2008, 43% of our products were in line with internationally accepted guidelines for saturated and trans fat, sugar and salt, an increase of 15% since 2005. |
Meet the World Health Organization’s recommended daily intake of 5g of salt per day. | Agreed further reduction targets for our food products, to reach 6g per day by 2010 and 5g by 2015, for implementation in 2009. | |
Show percentages of Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) for five key nutrients on pack for products sold in Europe as part of CIAA voluntary initiative. | By end 2008, 90% of eligible products labelled with GDA. | |
Deliver 15 million school meals to 80 000 children in 2008 via our partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme. | Delivered 16 million meals to 76 000 children in 2008. | |
Hygiene andwell-being | Lifebuoy aims to take its handwashing message to 1 billion people by 2012. | Over 2002–2008, Swasthya Chetna rural hygiene education campaign reached 120 million people in India. In 2008, Lifebuoy ran events in 23 countries to celebrate Global Handwashing Day. |
Align partnership activities with the FDI World Dental Federation to focus on day and night brushing campaign. | Signal/Pepsodent/Close Up reached more than 4 million children in school-based oral health programmes in 2008. | |
Dove’s Self-Esteem Fund campaign aims to share self-esteem materials with 5 million young people over 2005–2010. | By end 2008, the Fund reached >3.5 million young people. | |
Sustainable agriculture | All tea for Lipton tea bags will be sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified™farms by 2015. | By end 2008, around 50% of Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea sold in Western Europe came from Rainforest Alliance Certified™farms. |
Unilever will purchase all palm oil from certified sustainable sources by 2015. | Purchased first batch of certified sustainable palm oil in November 2008. | |
Ben & Jerry’s will use only cage-free eggs in its European and US ice cream products. Hellmann’s, Amora and Calvé brands will source only cage-free eggs for products sold in Western Europe by 2012. | Since 2004, only cage-free eggs used in Europe and on track to achieve US target by 2010. From mid-2008, Hellmann’s mayonnaise in the UK and Ireland used only free-range eggs. Ahead of schedule to achieve target by 2010. | |
Climate change | Reduce CO2 from energy in our manufacturing operations by 25% by 2012 (measured per tonne of production against a 2004 baseline). | Over 1995–2008, achieved a 39% reduction in CO2 from energy from manufacturing per tonne of production. On track to achieve 2012 target. |
Water | Continue to reduce water use in our manufacturing operations per tonne of production. | Over 1995–2008, achieved a 63% reduction in water use per tonne of production. |
Packaging | Minimise the use of PVC across our portfolio. | Set target to eliminate PVC from packaging – where viable alternatives exist – by 2010. |
Waste | Continue to reduce total waste in our manufacturing operations per tonne of production. | Over 1995–2008, achieved a 67% reduction in total waste per tonne of production. |
Economic impacts | Achieve our long-term ambition to be in the top third of a reference group of 21 consumer goods companies for total shareholder return. | Ranked 9th out of 21 in 2008. |
Increase the proportion of sales from developing and emerging markets. | Sales from these markets reached 47% in 2008. | |
Our partnership for the cultivation of allanblackia trees in Africa aims to involve 200 000 farmers and plant 25 million trees by 2017. | By end 2008, around 10 500 people involved and 40 000 tree seedlings raised. |
Management & implementation
To implement our strategy we have a series of management structures in place. The most important of these are:
Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC)
SEAC's role is to provide independent scientific evidence and guidance so that Unilever can identify and manage:
risks for consumers, workers and the environment with regard to the safety of products and supply chain technology; and
environmental impacts, with regard to the sustainability of Unilever's brands, products and supply chain.
Unilever Food & Health Research Institute
Around 450 scientific staff work on the development of new products and processes and continuously improve the nutritional quality of our products, often in conjunction with external partners. The Institute shares and discusses our research widely, through publication in journals and an annual symposium involving external scientific experts.
Global Health through Hygiene Programme
The aim of this programme is to co-ordinate Unilever's efforts to make a measurable contribution to the health and hygiene of people around the world through practical, community-based initiatives. The programme takes successful initiatives from one brand or country and tailors them to address consumer hygiene needs elsewhere.
Sustainable Agriculture Steering Group
The Steering Group is responsible for managing our Sustainable Agriculture Initiative. Its objective is to promote sustainable supply chains worldwide, focusing on long-term, sustainable access to Unilever's key crops. The Steering Group also benefits from the input of the Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Board which consists of external experts.
Other programmes
Our Greenhouse Gases Working Group and the Responsible Packaging Steering Team are two current examples of how teams come together to work on specific issues. These groups work to assess Unilever's footprint, formulate strategy, work with category and brand teams to set specific goals and support the teams in implementing them. They also engage with external stakeholders.
