- €1 billion Clean Future investment will drive a complete
transition away from fossil fuel derived chemicals in Unilever’s
cleaning and laundry products by 2030, while also unlocking new
ways of reducing their carbon footprint
- Investment will fund global research, development, and
innovation in circular cleaning chemistry
- Unilever calls on other businesses to adopt new ‘Carbon
Rainbow’ approach to transition to renewable and recycled carbon
sources from plant, air, marine sources, and waste
Unilever, a leading manufacturer of cleaning and laundry
products, today announces it will replace 100% of the carbon
derived from fossil fuels in its cleaning and laundry product
formulations with renewable or recycled carbon. This move is set to
transform the sustainability of global cleaning and laundry brands
including OMO (Persil), Sunlight, Cif, and Domestos.
This new ambition is a core component of Unilever’s ‘Clean
Future’, a ground-breaking innovation programme designed by the
company’s Home Care division to fundamentally change the way that
some of the world’s most well-known cleaning and laundry products
are created, manufactured, and packaged. Clean Future is unique in
its intent to embed the circular economy principles into both
packaging and product formulations at the scale of global brands to
reduce their carbon footprint.
Most cleaning and laundry products available today contain
chemicals made from fossil fuel feedstocks, a non-renewable source
of carbon. Unilever’s move to renewable or recycled sources of
carbon for these chemicals is a deliberate shift away from the
fossil fuel economy. The first initiative of its scale, Clean
Future is a critical step towards Unilever’s pledge of net zero
emissions from its products by 2039.
The chemicals used in Unilever’s cleaning and laundry products
make up the greatest proportion of their carbon footprint (46%)
across their life cycle. Therefore, by transitioning away from
fossil fuel-derived chemicals in product formulations, the company
will unlock novel ways of reducing the carbon footprint of some of
the world’s biggest cleaning and laundry brands. Unilever expects
this initiative alone to reduce the carbon footprint of the product
formulations by up to 20%.
Peter ter Kulve, Unilever’s President of Home Care, explains:
“Clean Future is our vision to radically overhaul our business. As
an industry, we must learn from brands such as Seventh Generation
and break our dependence on fossil fuels, including as a raw
material for our products. We must stop pumping carbon from under
the ground when there is ample carbon on and above the ground if we
can learn to utilise it at scale.
“We’ve seen unprecedented demand for our cleaning products in
recent months and we are incredibly proud to play our part, helping
to keep people safe in the fight against COVID-19. But that should
not be a reason for complacency. We cannot let ourselves become
distracted from the environmental crises that our world – our home
– is facing. Pollution. Destruction of natural habitats. The
climate emergency. This is the home we share, and we have a
responsibility to protect it.”
Unilever is ring-fencing €1 billion for Clean Future to finance
biotechnology research, CO2 and waste utilisation, and low carbon
chemistry – which will drive the transition away from fossil fuel
derived chemicals. This investment will also be used to create
biodegradable and water-efficient product formulations, to halve
the use of virgin plastic by 2025, and support the development of
brand communications that make these technologies appealing to
consumers. The Clean Future investment, which is additional to
Unilever’s new €1 billion ‘Climate and Nature fund’, is focused on
creating affordable cleaning and laundry products that deliver
superior cleaning results with a significantly lower environmental
impact.
Clean Future already supports industry-leading projects around
the world to transform how the chemicals in Unilever’s cleaning and
laundry products are made. In Slovakia for instance, Unilever is
partnering with biotechnology leader Evonik Industries to develop
the production of rhamnolipids, a renewable and biodegradable
surfactant which is already used in its Sunlight dishwashing liquid
in Chile and Vietnam. In Tuticorin in Southern India, Unilever is
sourcing soda ash – an ingredient in laundry powders – made using a
pioneering CO2 capture technology. The soda ash is made with the
CO2 emissions from the energy used in the production process. Both
technologies are hoped to be scaled significantly under the
programme.
The Carbon Rainbow
Central to Clean Future is Unilever’s ‘Carbon Rainbow’, a novel
approach to diversify the carbon used in its product formulations.
Non-renewable, fossil sources of carbon (identified in the Carbon
Rainbow as black carbon) will be replaced using captured CO2
(purple carbon), plants and biological sources (green carbon),
marine sources such as algae (blue carbon), and carbon recovered
from waste materials (grey carbon). The sourcing of carbon under
the Carbon Rainbow will be governed and informed by environmental
impact assessments and work with Unilever’s industry-leading
sustainable sourcing programmes to prevent unintended pressures on
land-use.
Tanya Steele, Chief Executive of WWF UK says: “The world must
shift away from fossil fuels towards renewable resources that
reduce pressure on our fragile ecosystems and that help to restore
nature. These significant commitments from Unilever, combined with
strong sustainable sourcing, have real potential to make an
important contribution as we transition to an economy that works
with nature, not against it.”
Joey Bergstein, CEO of Seventh Generation says: “We are
incredibly proud of Unilever’s “Clean Future” ambition to end its
reliance on fossil fuels in the creation of home cleaning products.
Since our acquisition by Unilever in 2016, we have learned from
each other. Seventh Generation has long pioneered using the power
of plants to create effective products while also raising bar in
sustainable packaging in the US. It’s inspiring to see the scale of
the positive impact that will come from Unilever’s bold commitment
internationally across their entire home care portfolio on these
dimensions.”
Peter ter Kulve, Unilever’s President of Home Care concludes: “A
new bioeconomy is rising from the ashes of fossil fuels.
“We’ve heard time and time again that people want more
affordable sustainable products that are just as good as
conventional ones. Rapid developments in science and technology are
allowing us to do this, with the promise of exciting new benefits
for the people who use our products, from ultra-mild cleaning
ingredients to self-cleaning clothes and surfaces.
“Diversifying sources of carbon is essential to grow within the
limits of our planet. Our suppliers and innovation partners play a
critical role through this transition. By sharing our Carbon
Rainbow model, we are calling on an economy-wide transformation in
how we all use carbon.”
ENDS
How people, businesses, and partners can help deliver a Clean
Future
- Visit the Clean Future website to find out more about
Unilever’s Carbon Rainbow approach, Clean Future, and the projects
that it is funding.
- Unilever is a founding Advisory Board member of the Renewable
Carbon Initiative (RCI), an emerging coalition from the Nova
Institute, which aims to bring renewable carbon to the political
stage and to develop and implement a sustainable future for the
chemical and plastics industry. If your business is interested in
finding out more, visit the Nova Institute website.
- If you have an idea for an innovation, solution, or opportunity
to partner with Unilever to accelerate its Clean Future programme,
get in touch through the company’s Sustainability Partnerships and
Open Innovation Submission Portal.
Unilever’s existing sustainability commitments
Today’s ambition to replace 100% of the carbon derived from
fossil fuels in Unilever’s Home Care formulations with renewable or
recycled carbon by 2030, builds on Unilever’s existing
environmental commitments, including:
- Ensuring net-zero carbon emissions from all its products from
cradle to shelf by 2039
- Achieving a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023
- Halving the GHG footprint of its products across the value
chain by 2030.
- Aiming to make its product formulations biodegradable by
2030
- Halve its use of virgin plastic, help collect and process more
plastic than it sells, ensure all of its plastic packaging is
reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, and use at least 25%
recycled plastic in its packaging, also by 2025.
Renewable and recycled carbon
Renewable and recycled carbon entails all carbon sources that
replace the use of fossil carbon from the geosphere. Renewable
carbon can come from the biosphere and atmosphere. Recycled carbon
comes from the technosphere. Renewable and recycled carbon
circulates between biosphere, atmosphere and technosphere, creating
a circular carbon economy.
The Carbon Rainbow in practice
The Clean Future programme is already funding Research &
Development into projects such as:
- Purple carbon (carbon capture and utilisation to produce soda
ash and other chemicals)
- Green carbon (rhamnolipids surfactant derived from terrestrial
biomass)
- Grey carbon (surfactant derived from plastic waste)
- Biodegradability (biodegradable cleaning polymers)
- Low carbon formulations (weight-efficient ingredients)
About Seventh Generation
Seventh Generation, a cleaning brand acquired by Unilever in
2016, has pioneered the use of plant-based cleaning technology for
more than thirty years in the US.
About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Beauty &
Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment products with
sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2.5 billion consumers a
day. It has 150,000 employees and generated sales of €52 billion in
2019. Over half of the company’s footprint is in developing and
emerging markets. Unilever has around 400 brands found in homes all
over the world, including Dove, Knorr, Dirt Is Good, Rexona,
Hellmann’s, Lipton, Wall’s, Lux, Magnum, Axe, Sunsilk and Surf.
Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) underpins the
company’s strategy and commits to:
- Helping more than a billion people take action to improve their
health and well-being by 2020.
- Halving the environmental impact of our products by 2030.
- Enhancing the livelihoods of millions of people by 2020.
The USLP creates value by driving growth and trust, eliminating
costs and reducing risks. The company’s sustainable living brands
delivered 78% of total growth and 75% of turnover in 2019.
Since 2010 we have been taking action through the Unilever
Sustainable Living Plan to help more than a billion people improve
their health and well-being, halve our environmental footprint and
enhance the livelihoods of millions of people as we grow our
business. We have made significant progress and continue to expand
our ambition – in 2019 committing to ensure 100% of our plastic
packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
While there is still more to do, we are proud to have been
recognised in 2019 as sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability
Index and in 2020 - for the tenth-consecutive year - as the top
ranked company in the GlobeScan/SustainAbility Sustainability
Leaders survey.
For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit
www.unilever.com.
For more information on the USLP:
www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200901006116/en/
Steve Alessandrini MediaRelations.USA@unilever.com
Unilever NV (NYSE:UN)
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