Unilever
Unilever is a major multinational company with brands sold in over 170 countries worldwide and a total turnover of about 39.8 billion Euros.
Fairfood and Unilever
Fairfood International first approached Unilever requesting information on the sustainability level of the ingredients used in their brand products and checked the validity of Unilever’s responses through an assurance procedure. In 2008, a concrete sustainability dialogue was initiated between Fairfood International and Unilever. Consequently, Unilever is more open about their supply procedure with Fairfood. We applauded Unilever on its positive steps (e.g. Lipton Tea getting Rainforest Alliance certified) and asked them for increased levels of sustainability, at the same time taking Unilever’s feedback about policies and procedures into consideration.
Current status
The constructive dialogue between Fairfood International and Unilever continues. In March 2010, in a meeting at Fairfood’s office in Amsterdam, Unilever explained their sustainability initiatives, referring to their involvement in the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, their Lipton Tea certification, the Ben&Jerry’s FairTrade certified flavors, and the MSC certification for several of their fish products. Fairfood is keeping track of Unilever’s actions with regards to sustainability and Unilever has acknowledged the impact that Fairfood has had on their operations where sustainability issues are concerned. Fairfood International will continue to monitor Unilever’s practices, encouraging them to maintain their present implementation efforts and even increase them. This includes a major Dutch multi-stakeholder initiative for a more sustainable future (IDH). Unilever is a member of this initiative; Fairfood International welcomes this and will keep up the pressure for more ambitious and attainable targets to be set and implemented in the future. We expect the next update from Unilever in October.
