Unilever's bid to Drive Supply Chain Decarbonisation

Global consumer goods giant Unilever is making significant strides in reducing supply chain emissions through its innovative Supplier Climate Programme.

Launched in 2021, the initiative continues to gain momentum, with an increasing number of suppliers accelerating their climate action efforts.

Targeting key suppliers

Unilever's Supplier Climate Programme focuses on approximately 300 key suppliers, representing around 44% of Unilever's Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to raw materials, ingredients and packaging.

These suppliers span various industries, including palm/oleochemicals, fine chemicals, soft commodities, food ingredients, packaging and petrochemicals, as well as collaborative manufacturers producing Unilever products.

Willem Uijen, Chief Procurement Officer at Unilever, emphasises the scale of the challenge: "We're on track to engage around 300 key suppliers by the end of 2024, equipping them with guidance and tools they need to accelerate their climate journeys.

"We're getting more and more product carbon footprint data back from these suppliers, enabling us to jointly track supplier progress and identify our biggest decarbonisation opportunities across each of our procurement portfolios."

Driving change through collaboration

Taking a collaborative approach is crucial to the success of Unilever's Supplier Climate Programme. 

Unilever provides suppliers with the tools and guidance required to calculate and share product carbon footprint (PCF) data, fostering a deeper understanding of climate impact and enabling effective action tracking.

Lenny Ellenkamp-van Olst, Director of Sustainability at Weener Plastics, a participant in the programme, shares her company's experience: "Sustainability was already high on our agenda when we joined the programme, but we didn't have much experience of making footprint calculations ourselves, so being offered a pre-selected tool to use was helpful.

"Now, we're training our teams using the PCF calculations we've made. It helps our developers design products in the best way and enables our operational teams to focus on the most relevant emission-reduction plans."

Expanding the ripple effect

The programme's influence extends beyond immediate suppliers.

Lenny continues: "We've also used it as leverage to engage our own suppliers regarding missing emissions data. Large customers wanting to see progress on emissions helps to emphasise the importance of data availability."

This cascading effect is crucial for comprehensive supply chain decarbonisation and Ball Corporation, another participant, has embraced the collaborative approach.

Predrag Ozmo, Sustainability Director at Ball Corporation, states: "Ball is happy to be collaborating with Unilever on decarbonisation efforts and jointly driving action to reduce the environmental impact of our packaging.

"Working together with other businesses is paramount in addressing this challenge. We must foster consensus, alignment and joint action across shared value chains.

"It's essential to explore and explain the business case for climate action. Understanding the costs of action versus inaction is imperative. Embracing an ambitious climate approach now will safeguard all our businesses in the long run."

Developing partnerships and roadmaps

As the programme evolves, Unilever is equipping its procurement team with the knowledge to integrate emissions reduction into commercial strategies.

The company is now focusing on developing partnerships and shaping roadmaps for priority materials with the biggest GHG reduction opportunities.

"We're seeing more suppliers accelerating their climate actions," concludes Stella Constantatos, Supplier Climate Programme Lead at Unilever. 

"By collaborating with us in the programme, our partners are not only better equipped to reduce emissions, but also helping us build a more accurate picture of the climate impact in our supply chain.

"This allows us to focus on the best emission-reduction opportunities and paves the way for our future partnership."

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