External opinion

Unilever Sustainable Development Group

The Unilever Sustainable Development Group comprises external experts who provide advice and guidance on the development of our strategy. Their collective expertise covers environmental, social and economic issues in both developed and developing countries.

The Group meets twice a year to discuss a range of topics. In 2008, these included responsible sourcing, palm oil, sustainable tea, water, packaging and climate change. We share the insights from these meetings with our Board-level Corporate Responsibility and Reputation Committee and our Corporate Responsibility, Issues, Sustainability and Partnerships (CRISP) leadership team.

Dan Esty is Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law, Yale University, US

"Unilever continues to be a leader in its commitment to making sustainability a core element of the company's business strategy.

I am particularly pleased to see the gains that have been made in moving toward Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM tea, sustainable palm oil and greater eco-efficiency across the value chains of many products. The success of this agenda in helping Unilever to reduce risks, cut costs, drive revenues and build its brands will ensure that the company continues to refine and advance its environmental efforts. It is nice to see the business case for sustainability emerging so clearly."

Ma Jun is Founder Director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, China

"There is a growing concern over water pollution in developing countries such as China as they go through industrialization and urbanization. The increasing discharge of industrial effluent, farming run-off and urban sewage has a huge negative impact on limited clean water resources.

The major commitment made by Wal-Mart in October 2008 in Beijing highlights the trend for multinational companies to extend environmental management to their vast supply chain in developing countries. I believe it is important for Unilever, as an industry leader in sustainability, to continue to work with customers and suppliers to reduce waste discharge and prevent water pollution in developing countries."

Malini Mehra is Founder & CEO of the Centre for Social Markets, India

“The banking crisis – implicating as it did some of the world’s most reputable financial institutions – has left a huge cloud over the corporate responsibility movement. Trust has dissolved and suspicion grown. This report shows a company seeking to do the right thing. Not as a pilot in one or two countries, but as a systematic way of conducting its core business with metrics that matter and communities to hold it to account.

This is a hard task – made harder by today's pressures from the financial markets and consumers alike. Unilever's analysis in this sustainability report shows how much is happening across the company as it seeks to embed principles of sustainability and vitality with integrity. None of this has reached perfection, but, as the examples of its tea, palm oil and greenhouse gas reduction efforts show, progress is a moving target.

Importantly, the report shows how much more can be done if customers and supply chains play their role in greening demand and greening supply. A prerequisite if we are to use today’s crisis as an opportunity to green economic recovery."

Jonathon Porritt is Founder Director of Forum for the Future, UK

"The brands in Unilever are much more engaged with sustainability than they've ever been before. This is no longer just a head office agenda. The Brand Imprint process developed over the last three years has been hugely influential in getting brand teams on board, connecting their direct commercial concerns with Unilever’s high-level commitments on vitality issues and sustainability.

That means there are many people in Unilever on quite a steep learning curve! Until now, most of the performance reporting was based on production-related metrics. Those metrics will now be reinforced by measures looking at different impacts per consumer use. That may not sound like a big shift, but it’s fundamental to enabling Unilever to manage the impacts of its brands.

What few people see is what's going on behind the scenes to deliver improved performance on all these different indicators. On packaging, for instance, with 160 million Unilever products shifted every day, that makes for a massive packaging headache: how best to ensure that all Unilever's packaging does the job it's meant to (in terms of food safety, nutritional information and so on) with the lowest possible environmental and social footprint. The new metric on a per consumer use basis means amassing huge amounts of data, product by product, in order to make those judgements. 'Sustainable packaging' may sound easy, but it actually requires a sophisticated combination of materials science, economics and psychology to make any serious headway at all!"