One Step At a Time: Unilever’s Plan Against Environmental Footprint.

Environmental ethics apply ethical thinking to the natural world and the relationship between humans and the earth. Environmental ethics are a key feature of environmental studies, but they have application in many other fields as human society grapples in a more meaningful way with pollution, resource degradation, the threat of extinction, and global climate disruption.

Being part of a giant fast moving consumer goods company that manufactures various products all over the world, Unilever also plays a big role in the environmental footprint. This is why as part of our Compass (sustainable) strategy, our goal is to halve the environmental footprint of the making and use of our products as we grow our business by 2020. This can be achieved by the following:

a.       Halve the greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of our products across the lifecycle by 2020. This can be achieved via renewable energy, new factories, reformulation, reduce energy consumption in offices, and reduce GHG from transport and refrigeration

b.      Halve the water associated with the consumer use of our products by 2020. This can be achieved via producing easy rinse products.

c.       Halve the waste associated with the disposal of our products by 2020. This can be achieved via: zero non-hazardous waste to landfill, reduced and recycle packaging, reduce paper consumption, and eliminating PVC.

d.      Source 100% of agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020. This can be achieved via: growing food in ways which sustain the soil, minimize water and fertilizer use, protect biodiversity and enhance farmers’ livelihoods.

 

However, meeting those hard targets is not an easy job for the corporation. So far, we are off plan in some of our targets, including the reduction of greenhouse gas impact per consumer use, which has increased by 4% since 2010*.  But as a Unilever employee, I know that I can contribute to meet these targets, even if I’m part of IT. As an IT manager responsible for Unilever’s Transportation Management System, I have to make sure these systems work as accurate and as reliable as expected to ensure efficient transportation of materials and product – which leads to reduced GHG from transportation.

 *This dashboard can be accessed by anyone thru https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/the-sustainable-living-plan/