As part of its ambitious plans to halve its environmental footprint while doubling its size, Unilever Australia is pioneering an employee engagement campaign that appoints every staff member as its new ‘Head of Sustainability’.
The campaign is aimed at driving ownership and understanding of the company’s new Sustainable Living Plan among employees as it rolls out across Unilever’s Australia and New Zealand markets.
In a firm statement that the company takes sustainability seriously, Unilever is challenging the notion that the corporate world must choose between sustainability and business growth, by making sustainability a core part of everyone’s job.
Sebastian Lazell, Chairman Unilever Australia and New Zealand, said, “In order to drive real change, sustainability must be seen as the new way of doing business at all levels of the company. By giving everyone the title of our ‘Head of Sustainability’, we want to educate our employees that the small actions of every person and every department working together can make a huge difference both to our business and the wider environment.”
“We have far-reaching goals to improve the health and well-being of our consumers, halve our environmental impact, and source 100% of our agricultural ingredients sustainably by 2020, and we cannot achieve these unless our people understand the role they can play and are empowered to act.”
The campaign, created by a specialist sustainability creative agency, Republic of Everyone, will see every Unilever employee in Australia and New Zealand receive a personalized ‘Head of Sustainability’ business card, along with a ‘job manual’ outlining Unilever’s business case for sustainability and why each employee has been given the new title.
A series of provocative posters introducing six Unilever employees – from the factory floor to field sales – as the company’s “New Head of Sustainability” will be placed around Unilever’s six major sites to reinforce the central idea that anyone can be the ‘Head of Sustainability’.
“This employee campaign to communicate our sustainability plans is a first for Unilever globally and we believe it sets us apart as a company that firmly puts sustainability at the centre of our business strategy. Operating in a world where we face a rapidly growing population and increasing demand on resources, we believe we need to act now and with urgency to gear our business up for sustainable growth in 10, 20 or 50 years’ time,” said Lazell.
In Australia and New Zealand, Unilever has set itself 26 social, environmental and economic targets (out of 50 global targets) that will help it to deliver the global vision of the Sustainable Living Plan locally. These targets range from improving heart health to reducing greenhouse gases across the entire lifecycle of Unilever’s products, from raw material production right through to consumer use and disposal.
According to Matt Perry, Partner at Republic of Everyone, “Our experience shows us that a successful sustainability strategy is linked to genuine employee engagement. It is critical that employees are inspired to play the role of sustainability ambassadors for the company every day.
“Sustainability must be seen as the new way of doing everything at a day to day business level. We believe that our idea, to make every employee the Head of Sustainability, has this objective inherently built in to it,” says Perry.
Source: Unilever.
