The multinational consumer goods conglomerate Unilever touts itself as a sustainable business. From emission reduction to reduction of plastic waste, its projects purport to equate profit with conservation. But is the company’s green cred really what it’s portrayed to be?
Key Takeaways
- Unilever aims to reduce its carbon footprint by adopting renewable energy and sustainable sourcing.
- Plastic reduction is a major initiative, yet concerns remain about the company’s reliance on single-use packaging.
- Critics argue that while Unilever markets itself as green, true sustainability may be hindered by its vast production scale.
Unilever has made big bucks on advertising as a “green” company. Its sustainability programmes range from reducing greenhouse gas emissions through its supply chain to reducing plastic waste through recycling and material development. The company brags about how Earth-loving it is – the ideal of an eco-conscious and a corporate-friendly balance. But how sustainable can Unilever be when it’s one of the biggest consumer-product manufacturers on the planet?
It’s a foundational aspect of Unilever’s sustainability plan: it aims to be net-zero emissions by 2039, more than 10 years ahead of international climate targets. They’ve already made a commitment to get renewable energy, suppliers who are sustainable, and less water and energy used to manufacture products. But skeptics say these adjustments, while welcomed, are mere tweaks on the scale of Unilever’s effect. Can an industry giant such as Unilever really be green and yet create trillions of tons of products all over the planet?
Another unofficial green initiative at Unilever is reducing plastic. They’ve also started to use recycled materials in their packaging, and set very high targets to avoid virgin plastic as much as possible. Nonetheless, even as all this is happening, the company’s enslavement to disposable plastic remains hard to resist. To many environmentally conscious consumers and environmentalists, the unsustainable packaging Unilever is using is actually greenwashing – marketing environmentally friendly packaging when plastic’s environmental value is still prohibitive.
So too does Unilever’s social responsibility to encourage high wages and ethical labour practices across the supply chain. However, for an empire this big, doubters suggest that these promises can be fully enforced, at least in areas where labour protections are scarcer. For real environmental impact, you have to make a lot of systematic changes and lower total production (which is against Unilever’s growth model).
In short, Unilever’s sustainability programmes are commendable, and might motivate other companies to make similar initiatives, but what will really be of interest is how long they take. But is Unilever’s giant footprint really going to make it into a corporate sustainability exemplar, or is the green badge just greenish paint?
