How is Unilever Reducing Emissions Across the Supply Chain?

Launched in 2021, Unilever's Supplier Climate Programme saw a growing number of businesses within the supply chain accelerating their climate action.

Focusing its support on a subset of key suppliers whose materials contribute the most to its climate impact: around 300 suppliers that are equal to approximately 44% of Unilever's 'Scope 3' GHG emissions (outside its operations and within scope of our net zero ambition) that are related to raw materials, ingredients and packaging.

These suppliers are from a range of industries including palm/oleochemicals, fine chemicals, soft commodities, food ingredients, packaging and petrochemicals, as well as collaborative manufacturers who produce some Unilever products on its behalf.

The updated Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP) estimates that the Supplier Climate Programme could deliver the biggest step towards reaching the company's new science-based targets for reducing the Scope 3 GHG emissions by 2030.

With 63% of Unilever's total emissions within scope of its net zero ambition estimated to come from its raw materials, ingredients and packaging, helping suppliers to calculate and share the footprint of the materials they're selling is key – each needs it to better understand the climate impact, collaborate over effective action and track progress over the next few years.

Writing on LinkedIn after sharing this post, Willem Uijen, Chief Procurement Officer at Unilever, said: "My teams are grappling with a huge challenge.

"We've been shaping and scaling our Supplier Climate Programme. 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.

"And it's happening. 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.

"This task isn't easy. Results don't come quick. And we're all learning from each other as we go. I want to thank our Procurement and Business Operations Sustainability teams for their hard work.

"By sharing our experiences so far, we hope to encourage more companies to take climate action along their supply chains."

Weener Plastics and Ball Corporation are among the companies taking part in the Supplier Climate Programme. Both supply Unilever with packaging solutions.

Last year, Unilever provided guidance and tools to Weener Plastics to start calculating PCF data for the first time and it shared this with Unilever.

Ball Corporation also shared its PCF data via a joint decarbonisation workshop. This year, Unilever have engaged both companies again to share their updated PCF data, enabling it to track the progress they are making with reducing the climate impact of their materials.

Both companies explained how taking part in the programme and recognising the business case for climate action is helping them to accelerate efforts in their own supply chains.

Weener Plastics

Lenny Ellenkamp-van Olst, Director of Sustainability at Weener Plastics, says: "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.

"We know some changes will require more time or larger investments because the biggest reductions can often only be achieved by redesigning the entire product and its processes. However, we've already made operational savings since the start of the Supplier Climate Programme, from reducing scrap rates to optimising our cooling systems and processes.

"We've also used the Programme 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."

Ball Corporation

Predrag Ozmo, Sustainability Director at Ball Corporation, adds: "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."

This year and beyond

Over the past few months, Unilever has equipped its procurement team with knowledge of how to interpret and meaningfully integrate emissions reduction into their commercial strategies.

Looking to the future, the focus will be on the development of partnerships coming out of workshops being held with select suppliers, as well as shaping roadmaps for priority materials with the biggest GHG reduction opportunities.

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

"By collaborating with us in the programme, our partners are not only better equipped to reduce emissions, they are 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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