Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Climate change is accelerating and its impact on the world is becoming more and more obvious. Unilever is still making progress in fulfilling its commitment to help combat climate change. Since 20 10, the greenhouse gas emissions per unit product of Unilever have decreased by about 6% in the process of product manufacturing and use. In particular, by improving energy efficiency and using more renewable energy, great progress has been made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in binding and production processes.

Environmental protection freezer

As one of the largest ice cream producers in China, Unilever uses environment-friendly freezers, and refrigerants (hydrocarbons) are beneficial to the climate and the environment. In 20 12, Unilever used 18000 environmental protection freezer. In 20 13 years, this number will reach 34,000. This action will also help Unilever customers to reduce the adverse impact on the environment.

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the production process

In 20 12, the greenhouse gas emissions per unit output of Unilever China factory decreased by 9% and 46% respectively compared with 20 1 1 and 2008. Installing solar energy in factories is one of Unilever's best practices in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in China. 20 10 Jinshan factory began to use solar devices on a pilot basis. The first phase of construction invested 654.38 million euros, and a 500-square-meter solar energy system was installed on the roof of the factory to heat the production water.

Subsequently, a 400-square-meter solar energy system was successfully installed to provide hot water for workers' bathrooms. Switching from oil to solar energy system helps us save more than 28,000 euros and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65,438+066 tons every year. 20 1 1 solar energy system was successfully extended to Taicang factory, and 20 12 was officially put into use. The 400-square-meter solar energy system not only helps the factory to reduce the use of steam and the emission of nearly 300 tons of greenhouse gases, but also promotes cost savings of more than 23,000 euros per year.

In 20 13 years, the solar energy system will be further extended to Beijing ice cream factory to continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the production process.

Water saving in every link of value chain

The shortage of water resources has endangered many parts of the world. By 2025, 654.38+08 billion people will live in countries or regions where water resources are extremely scarce, and two-thirds of them will live in conditions of tight water supply. As far as personal and domestic water consumption is concerned, about 70% of available fresh water is used for agriculture. The United Nations estimates that each person needs 50- 100 liters of water every day for daily drinking and cooking, washing and other daily activities. In the poorest countries/regions, people only have 10 liter of water available every day.

Getting water, especially when women undertake this task, is also a problem. According to United Nations data, sub-Saharan Africa alone spends 40 billion hours on water harvesting every year. Unilever's approach is to reduce water consumption in the whole value chain from raw material procurement to product design.

Disposable rinse clothes care agent

In 20 12, Unilever Jinfang once-rinsed clothing care agent was newly listed in China, which indicated that consumers had another choice of easy-rinsed care agent. The new product encourages consumers to use half the dosage and get better rinsing effect. Every year, the elite new products of Jinfang benefit 654.38+05 million consumers in China. If consumers use the dosage recommended by Unilever every time they gargle, the annual water consumption will be reduced to 6.5438+0.4 million tons. Reduce the water consumption of consumers in the laundry process.

Detergent products with less water consumption.

As a well-known detergent brand under Unilever, Migu launched a new automatic laundry detergent with stronger washing effect and more water saving on 20 12. At the same time, Weimi Pure Blue Full-effect Laundry Liquid has maintained a continuous sales growth and its market share has been rising. The new product not only brings considerable business growth to Migu, but also helps consumers to reduce the water consumption in the laundry process. If consumers wash less every time they wash, they can use 3 billion liters of water less every year.

waste water utilization

In 20 12, the water consumption per unit output of Unilever China factory decreased by 28% compared with 2008. In April of 20 1 1, the reclaimed water reuse project in Hefei factory was officially put into use, and it was widely extended to factories in Beijing, Jinshan, Conghua and Taiwan Province provinces in 20 12. This project adopts the international advanced ultrafiltration membrane technology, carries out sterilization, sand filtration and fine filtration on the basis of the effluent from the original secondary sedimentation tank, and then enters the ultrafiltration three-stage filtration system, so that the treated reclaimed water can meet the standard of urban domestic miscellaneous water.

Hefei factory produces 1300 tons of reclaimed water every day, most of which is used for greening irrigation and toilet flushing in the factory, saving 220,000-70,000 tons of tap water every year. The factory also actively cooperates with Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone, providing more than 600 tons of reclaimed water for municipal land flushing and greening irrigation free of charge every day.

Waste is wealth from now on.

Packaging is very important. It protects our products. However, the product packaging will eventually become waste or garbage, which will be discarded to landfills and garbage dumps. Solving the problem of resource shortage means that it is urgent to use effective packaging and find a solution to the problem of "waste after use" (consumers throw away packaging and products after use). This is particularly important for developing markets. In these markets, the infrastructure used to treat packaging waste can't keep up with the rapid growth of consumption.

Unilever's approach is: reduction, reuse and recycling. Reducing packaging can bring immediate cost benefits, that is, cost savings in materials, energy and transportation.

Reduce waste in the production process

In its own operation, the Unilever manufacturing team has exceeded the goal of 2020: reducing the amount of product-related waste by half. Compared with 2008, the total amount of garbage disposal in 20 13 years decreased by about 97,000? Tons, which means that the amount of waste generated per ton of products has decreased by 66%? . By the end of 20 13, 75%( 186) of the factories had achieved zero landfill of non-hazardous wastes, more than 50 more than 20 12. By 2020, although the output of products will be greatly improved, the total waste treatment capacity will be lower than or maintained at the level of 2008, which means that the amount of waste generated per ton of products will be reduced by about 40%. Compared with the baseline 1995, the amount of waste produced per ton of products decreased by 80% and the absolute value decreased by 70%.

Little tricks, happy childhood, big difference

Country early education center

20 12 In July, Unilever, together with China Development Research Foundation and Save the Children, launched an early childhood development project centered on "Mountain Village Kindergarten" in Hongya County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province, aiming at creating fair opportunities for children in remote areas to receive early education, comprehensively improving the level of hygiene, nutrition and health, and enhancing parents' and public's understanding of early childhood development through public advocacy.

This is an important part of every project in the world. In addition to the "Mountain Village Kindergarten" project, the Unilever Foundation and Save the Children have also carried out cooperative projects in Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan and Tibet, benefiting 20,000 children and 30,000 parents.

Hope primary school plan

Unilever China donated 20 Hope Primary Schools, ranging from 65438 to 0996, to poverty-stricken areas in Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Anhui provinces. Since September 2006, Unilever China has organized volunteer activities twice a year to provide employees with a week's paid holiday and encourage them to go to Unilever Hope Primary School to carry out teaching activities.

Wei Mi brand and Yao Fund provided sports equipment for 27,000 students in 47 Hope primary schools in 18 provinces and cities to help children learn how to play basketball, thus improving their sports skills.

The secret-"Let China children play"

20 12 At the beginning of the new year, Mi Miao, a brand owned by Unilever, and China Youth Development Foundation launched the donation activity of "Send Love to Welcome the New Year". Through the in-store donation mechanism, brand-new winter clothes with a market value of more than 990,000 yuan were donated to hope primary school students in Anhui, Shandong, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Yunnan, benefiting 25,600 students.

In April of the same year, Mi Gu launched the social sustainable action plan of "Children Playing China", supported the basketball season activities of Hope Primary School initiated by Yao Ming and Yao Fund, donated 1 ten thousand yuan to Yao Fund, supported the basketball activities of 47 poor schools in 18 provinces and cities, and helped 27,000 students grow up in sports.

Le Jia Hope Kitchen Project

20 12 in may, Unilever's Le Jia brand and China youth development foundation jointly formulated the "nutrition and health plan", aiming at improving the nutrition and health level of rural children according to the dietary status of rural children in China and combining Le Jia's experience and professional knowledge in dietary health for many years.

Since June, Le Jia has successively sent the balanced diet handbooks in line with the situation of each province to 100 hope primary schools in rural areas of Hebei, Hunan, Anhui and Ningxia. By the end of 20 12, 35,000 students had benefited from * * *.

Little tricks, beautiful countryside, big difference.

Guidelines for sustainable agriculture

More than half of their raw materials come from farms and forests. Their decisions about who to purchase from and how to cooperate with suppliers will have a profound impact on global resources, climate change and farmers' livelihood. It is precisely because they know and understand the extraordinary significance of their every move that they have always insisted on the sustainable procurement of raw materials. This is the "Sustainable Agriculture Criterion" officially launched by Unilever on 20 10 after a long preparation in 15. It is a high-yield, efficient and competitive agricultural production mode based on agricultural practice, which can bring economic benefits, be environment-friendly, meet community conditions and development needs, focus on the future, ensure safe supply, reduce costs and protect rare resources.

Unilever believes that sustainable agriculture refers to practical, economical and environmentally-friendly agricultural practices that meet community conditions and development needs. This is a high-yield, efficient and competitive agricultural production mode. Sustainable procurement plans must rely on this activity, whether through self-assessment or external certification standards. Unilever has implemented sustainable procurement of potatoes, dairy products, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, beets and tomatoes:

Sustainable vegetables

In 20 12, Unilever tomato supplier Tunhe Co., Ltd. successfully met the requirements of Unilever's sustainable agriculture charter, which was completed two years ahead of schedule. 20111February, Unilever signed a strategic partnership agreement with COFCO, and formulated the vision and goal of realizing sustainable tomato procurement. Since 2004, Unilever and Tunhe have carried out sustainable agricultural cooperation in Xinjiang, China to ensure the safety, legality and traceability of product sources. In the past seven years, Unilever has appointed an interview team to guide tomato planting.

Help Tunhe to make improvements in pest control, pesticide residue control, good agricultural practices, etc., and the pesticide residues on tomato fruits are decreasing continuously, reaching the EU standards. As one of the largest buyers and partners in Tunhe, Unilever purchases nearly 20,000 tons of tomatoes every year, of which more than 90% are exported to Europe. The next goal of Unilever's sustainable procurement journey is to ensure that all the fruit and vegetable raw materials that Unilever purchases from China are certified for sustainability.

Sustainable tea

Lincang, Yunnan Province is positioned by Unilever as a global supplier of black tea with great potential. Unilever began to cooperate with Lipton supplier Biliyuan Tea Co., Ltd. in 2007 to explore and develop sustainable tea gardens in Yunnan. In recent years, Unilever has repeatedly appointed experts to guide local tea planting, and conducted field research on plantations in combination with the certification standards of Rainforest Alliance to promote rectification. In addition, Unilever has held several certification trainings of Rainforest Alliance, which has comprehensively improved the planting techniques of local tea farmers.

20 12 In August, Biliyuan Company 15000 mu tea garden base became the first sustainable tea garden certified by Rainforest Alliance in China. Through this certification, Rainforest Alliance officially entered China, and more importantly, it accelerated the sustainable procurement process of Unilever.

Sustainable procurement of office supplies

Unilever is committed to achieving global sales by 20 13 years ago. All office paper products in the top 2 1 countries come from certified sustainable forests or recyclable raw materials. Unilever China prints about 13 1 000 business cards every year. In 20 12, the business cards of Unilever employees in China were all sustainable papers certified by Forest Management Committee, which increased the proportion of sustainable procurement of office supplies.

Improve farmers' lives

In developing countries and emerging markets, Unilever can even have more impact on people's livelihood. This is because Unilever's supplier and distributor network involves millions of small-scale farms, distributors and retailers. Most small farmers have crops of less than 2 hectares. Due to the lack of understanding of modern farming methods, they are often unable to increase their income. If small farmers can get trained and better quality seeds and fertilizers, they can greatly increase their output and Unilever will benefit from it.

When Unilever develops its business in developing countries and emerging markets, it will buy more agricultural raw materials grown by small farmers. If their business is prosperous, their income increases and they have the ability to invest, Unilever's raw material supply will be more secure and the quality of food raw material supply will be better.

Small farmer training program

In 20 12, Unilever's garlic supplier Dongsheng Food Co., Ltd. organized six trainings on sustainable development for cooperative small farmers in Shandong, with a total of 1332 participants. According to Unilever's sustainable agriculture charter, Unilever has carefully prepared a set of illustrated training materials to help small farmers understand Unilever's requirements. These training courses have had a positive impact on small farmers, not only improving their knowledge level of sustainable agriculture, but also enhancing their understanding of Unilever. By 2020, Unilever is committed to influencing at least 500,000 small farmers around the world. As one of Unilever's global key markets, Unilever China is working hard for this goal.