Unilever has committed a €1 billion Clean Future investment to eliminate fossil fuels in cleaning products by 2030. — Photo Unilever Vietnam
Cleaning and laundry products manufacturer Unilever on Wednesday announced it will replace 100 per cent of the carbon derived from fossil fuels in its cleaning and laundry products with renewable or recycled carbon.
The company’s 'Clean Future' investment, worth 1 billion euro (US$1.177 billion), will drive a transition away from fossil fuel-derived chemicals in Unilever’s cleaning and laundry products by 2030.
This move is set to transform the sustainability of brands including OMO, Sunlight, Cif, and Domestos (known as Vim in Viet Nam).
“Clean Future is our vision to radically overhaul our business. As an industry, we must break our dependence on fossil fuels, including as a raw material for our products. We must stop pumping carbon from under the ground when there is ample carbon on and above the ground if we can learn to utilise it at scale,” said Peter ter Kulve, Unilever’s President of Home Care.
Unilever’s ‘Clean Future’ programme aims to change the way cleaning and laundry products are created, manufactured, and packaged, with circular economy principles embedded into both packaging and products.
Most cleaning and laundry products today contain chemicals made from fossil fuel feedstocks, a non-renewable source of carbon.
Clean Future is a step towards Unilever’s pledge of net zero emissions from its products by 2030.
The chemicals used in Unilever’s cleaning and laundry products make up the greatest proportion of their carbon footprint (46 per cent) across their lifecycle. Unilever expects this initiative alone to reduce the carbon footprint of the product formulations by up to 20 per cent. — VNS