Around 200 leaders from business, national and local government, NGOs, academia and media, and top local influencers including Graça Machel, gathered recently for the Unilever Collective Action Business Breakfast to discuss how implementation of meaningful sustainability measures can positively benefit business and society.

Unilever CEO, Paul Polman, told the audience: “It will take much more than one company, government and community to solve the issues that face us. We need collective action for a brighter and more sustainable future for all.”

Polman called for collective action to drive sustainability and urged stakeholders and business leaders to identify partnership opportunities that will deliver positive change and strive to meet targets set out in the National Development Plan (NDP) and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Unilever sustainability

Polman shared some of the results from the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP); the company’s blueprint for achieving its vision to grow the business, whilst decoupling its environmental footprint from growth and increasing its positive social impact.

After five years, the business is on course to achieve many of the USLP targets and has found that the sustainability-first approach results in more growth and lower costs, as well as less risk and more trust – with the company’s Sustainable Living Brands growing 30% faster than the rest of the business.

“Consumers expect more of brands and businesses now – and they reward those that deliver a wider social benefit in addition to the traditional product performance at an affordable price,” Polman said.

“Sustainability is now a strategic element of business that South African organisations should embed in their daily operations. There is more that local companies can do to emulate early adopters such as Unilever who have incorporated sustainability with growth to deliver its targets on people, profit and planet,” commented Prof. John Simpson, Director of the UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing.

The past five years

Since the launch of the Plan in 2010, Unilever is making great strides towards realising key commitments across the markets they operate in, including South Africa:

Reducing environmental impact

Unilever’s South African manufacturing operations have reduced CO₂ emissions from energy by 19%, water use by 30% and waste by 17%.

A look into the future:

The next 5 years of the Plan will see greater effort towards achieving wider transformational systems change. It focusses on three areas where the business believes its scale, influence and resources can make the biggest difference – eliminating deforestation, sustainable agriculture and smallholder farmers, and water, sanitation and hygiene”.

Polman concluded, “Unilever will continue to design products that are less carbon and water intensive, as well as educate and support suppliers and consumers to operate more sustainably. However, we will not meet our goals, nor will society fulfil its potential, unless we mobilise collective action to achieve wider transformation.”