Unilever SUStainable living Plan: india

imProving HealtH and Well-being

We provide millions of indians with a great variety of affordable, quality products which help improve their diet, lifestyle and overall health and well-being.

HealtH and HYgiene

Products such as soap and toothpaste can help prevent disease and improve health and well-being. But this relies on people improving their everyday habits. Provide safe drinking water
80% of diseases in developing countries like India come from unsafe drinking water. Our Pureit water purifier provides water 'as safe as boiled' without the need of electricity or pressurized tap water. It protects more than 15 million people in 3 million households in India. The Government of India's premier health assessment agency, the National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), conducted a year-long scientific study and established that homes using Pureit had a 50% lower incidence of diarrhoea. We work with UNICEF to offer safe drinking water in schools and day-care centres in low-income communities in southern India.

nUtrition
Through our products and partnerships we aim to make a difference to the quality of people's diets, helping to tackle both over- and under-nutrition. Improve nutrition through daily habits
Brooke Bond's Sehatmand, a tea with vitamins, has been launched to address the nutrition needs of low-income consumers. Three cups of Sehatmand tea provide 50% of the RDA of key B vitamins (B2, B6, B9 and B12). An on-ground campaign called 'Sehatmand Parivaar Sehatmand Bharat', led by major NGOs, such as Pahal, and civil society groups, was launched in a few states with the mission to educate people on how to combat micro-nutrient deficiency related problems with proper health and nutrition, reaching villages in collaboration with gram panchayats.

Reduce diarrhoeal and respiratory disease

Studies show that washing hands with soap is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways of preventing diseases. Our Lifebuoy soap brand leads our hand-washing campaign: Lifebuoy's Swasthya Chetna. This is the single largest private rural health and hygiene educational programme undertaken in India to educate people about basic hygiene habits. Since 2002, the project has touched more than 120 million people in India. Lifebuoy, in partnership with a coalition of public health and NGO partners, launched the inaugural Global Hand wash Day in India on October 15, 2008. In 2010, over 750 employees volunteered and went to various municipal schools in Mumbai to encourage children to inculcate the habit of hand-washing with soap.

Reduce calories
To cater to the needs of the growing number of health conscious people who will not compromise on great taste, Kwality Wall's, our ice cream brand, in its 'selection' range offers product formats which deliver less than 99 Kcal in one standard scoop of 80ml.

Provide healthy eating information

We are committed to reducing the quantity of saturated fat, trans fat, salt and sugar in our products. Currently, 85% of our food and beverage brands carry the 'Healthy Choice' stamp (as per 2005 benchmark). The stamp is carried by brands that have passed an evaluation against a set of qualifying criteria based on international dietary guidelines. Those criteria are periodically reviewed by an independent international scientific committee made up of leading scientists.

Improve oral health

Scientific research has shown that brushing teeth twice a day, with fluoride toothpaste, can reduce tooth decay by up to 50% in children, compared to only brushing once. In 2009, our oral care brand Pepsodent went to 180 schools across the country to educate more than 1,50,000 kids about the 'right brushing, night brushing' practice. Pepsodent is endorsed by FDI, the largest dental association globally.

Reduce Salt levels

We have reduced the salt content of our relaunched range of Knorr soups by 7-35%. We have initiated a similar move for brands such as Kissan and Annapurna.

redUCing environmental imPaCt

our commitment to sustainability requires us to go beyond our own operations and reduce our total environmental footprint. We ensure that our impact on the environment is minimized across the value chain, from sourcing materials to consumer use.

greenHoUSe gaSeS
Reduce GHG from our manufacturing
Our target is to reduce CO2 from energy in our manufacturing operations per tonne of production by 25% by 2012 (against the 2004 baseline). Low carbon technology: The ploughshare mixer technology eliminates the need for steam in soap making, cutting carbon emissions by 15,000 tonnes per year. We are the first Unilever business in the world to be awarded carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Carbon neutral fuels and renewable energy: Manufacturing operations at Chiplun, Puducherry, and Hosur use briquette boilers that utilise bio-mass as fuel. The reduction per annum in CO2 emissions in the Chiplun factory is 11,000 tonnes and in the Puducherry factory is 10,000 tonnes. In 2009, we reduced CO2 from energy in our manufacturing operations by 28% (measured on per tonne basis over a baseline of 2004).

Water
Reduce water use in agriculture
As part of our Sustainable Agriculture program, we work with our suppliers and partners to reduce the water used to grow our crops such as tomatoes and tea.

WaSte
Reduce Packaging
More than 20 projects were initiated in 2009 for reducing the amount of packaging material used for our food brands, with a potential to save 750 tonnes of laminate and 135 tonnes of corrugated board. We have reduced potential packaging waste by over 900 tonnes through several projects in 2009, across all major brands in the laundry category.

SUStainable SoUrCing
Since we depend on agriculture and forestry for a large part of our raw materials, sustainable sourcing has become a strategic issue for our business and brands.

Reduce water use in our manufacturing process

In 2009, we reduced water usage in our manufacturing operations by 31% measured on per tonne basis over a baseline of 2004. More than 75% of our manufacturing sites are zero discharge sites. More than 50% of our manufacturing sites have rainwater harvesting facility (to scientifically recharge the underground aquifers or store and reuse the rainwater from the catchments). As of now, five Hindustan Unilever sites have the potential to return more water to the ground than is being consumed by them.

Sustainable Tea
We are working closely with key tea producers (in North and South India) and the Rainforest Alliance, an international certification body, in the area of sustainable agriculture. Nine tea estates in the Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu), and ten tea estates in Assam were certified 'Sustainable Estates' by the Rainforest Alliance in 2008 and 2009. This certification is currently sought for 52 other tea estates in Assam and Darjeeling. By 2015 we aim to have the tea in all Lipton tea bags sourced from Rainforest Alliance certified estates.

Reduce waste from our manufacturing

100% of non-hazardous waste generated in our operations is recycled in environment-friendly ways. Some of our supply chain waste is sent for co-processing at cement plants to ensure its eco-friendly disposal. The waste is combusted at very high temperatures and the heat is utilized in the cement clinker.

Reduce GHG from refrigeration

Our ice-cream business has moved into procuring technologically advanced Hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerantbased freezers for its retail operations, instead of the Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) refrigerant based freezers. HC has zero ozone depletion potential and negligible global warming potential. These freezers have brought about a significant reduction in our carbon footprint and will result in approximately 9% savings in power consumption as well. There are currently 6800 HC-based freezers in our fleet.

Reduce water use in the laundry process

Surf Excel quickwash has a special formulation that produces less lather and hence requires less water for rinsing. It can save up to two buckets of water per wash load. Considering our large consumer base for this product, it makes a big difference, especially in the southern states of India, where laundry accounts for up to a quarter of the total water used.

Recycle packaging
Tertiary packaging materials, like corrugated boxes used for most of our products, are made from recyclable materials.

Sustainable fruits and vegetables

Tomato paste: we have started developing sustainable agricultural practises with Indian producers. We are working closely with key producers and our initiatives include water conservation, use of authorized pesticides, land conservation, and improvement of farmer income. Commercial production has already commenced.

Tackle sachet waste

We have been exploring new technologies and have identified pyrolysis as a promising solution. Pyrolysis turns plastic waste into fuel, recovering around 60% of the energy embedded in the plastic. We are evaluating this and other technologies to assess their technical and commercial feasibility. We have started trials in our Puducherry factory by purchasing and using small quantities of crude oil extracted through this process. Currently we are monitoring the trials.

Conserving water
We are also engaged in community projects to conserve water. We aim to conserve more than 20 billion litres of water by 2015. Rainwater harvesting and soil conservation projects have been undertaken in Khamgaon (Maharashtra), Silvassa (Dadra and Nagar Haveli), Puducherry. Hindustan Unilever has launched a water conservation project in Gundar Basin (Tamil Nadu) in partnership with DHAN and NABARD. It will enhance the livelihood of over 20,000 farmers and aims to renovate 250 irrigation tanks.

enHanCing liveliHoodS
We enhance the livelihoods of millions of indians as we grow our business.

better liveliHoodS
From sourcing to distribution we engage with a diverse set of business partners. Our business creates economic benefits for all our partners, including our suppliers and distributors.

Supporting micro-entrepreneurs: Mobile cart vendors

Our Kwality Walls mobile vending operations provide entrepreneurship opportunities to over 5,500 migrant labourers in the cities. Uniforms, first aid kits, behavioural and basic sales training and financial support are provided through our channel partners along with initial stock on credit and a vending cart with freezers. In most cases, each vendor can make INR 3000-4500 a month. This channel generates over INR 16 crores in commissions for our vendors. Some of our vendors have now become distributors themselves, managing INR 2 to 10 crores in the ice-cream business and earning upwards of INR 1,00,000 per month.

Helping smallholder farmers

In India, Unilever is working with the government to promote increased yields of gherkins used by Unilever's Amora and Maille brands. We are jointly funding eight drip-irrigation trials with gherkin suppliers to help reduce water use and increase yields and profits. So far, two trials have been a success, resulting in a yield increase of 84%, increased profits of 245%, and a 70% reduction in water use.

Supporting micro-entrepreneurs: Shakti

Project Shakti, started in year 2001, is a rural initiative that targets small villages populated by less than 5000 individuals. Project Shakti impacts society in two ways the Shakti Entrepreneur program creates livelihood opportunities for underprivileged rural women, and the Shakti Vani program improves quality of life by spreading health and hygiene awareness. Project Shakti benefits business by significantly enhancing Hindustan Unilevers direct rural reach, and by enabling our brands to communicate effectively in media-dark regions. Through Project Shakti, we have enhanced the livelihoods of 45,000 Shakti entrepreneurs in 15 states across India.