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keynote
:
the
brand
owner
’
s
perspective
of
sustainability
The Congress’s first keynote followed – from Louis
Lindenberg, Global Packaging Sustainability Director of
Unilever, who presented the key end user’s perspective on
the label and packaging industry’s sustainability agenda.
With 171,000 employees and operations in 100 countries,
Unilever is committed to achieving a ‘sustainable living plan’
by 2020, which embraces the lifecycle impacts of all its
brands, across all countries, in every arena: social, economic,
and environment. Unilever takes responsibility for the whole
product value chain from raw materials to disposal, and views
sustainability as a growth driver for its business.
Consumers and major retailers want it; it fuels innovation; it
develops markets; it saves money; and it ‘inspires our
people’, Mr Lindenberg said. In the first year of Unilever’s
commitment to their sustainable living plan, he said, ‘we are
making good progress, and are ready to scale up our
activities’. The company is achieving results across its many
different kinds of packaging. 60% of the paper and board now
used is either certified or recycled, and plastic containers
have been down gauged, or feature recycled content, or are
consciously chosen to be recyclable. In fact, he said, ‘we have
made €250 million in eco-efficiency savings through the 113
tonnes of plastic we have saved by downgauging.’ He invited
congress participants to collaborate on developing practical
recycling solutions specific to the self-adhesive label
industry.
However, Unilever is still facing challenges, particularly in the
context of working on behavioural change, which involves
engaging the consumer in such areas as water use reduction
– in the shower, in the laundry, and in hand washing.
Without consumer ‘buy-in’, product innovation is not in itself
enough to create a sustainable business model, he observed.
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FINAT YEARBOOK
2013
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