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Unilever

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Mission

Explore the potential of unlocking the circular economy within the fast-moving consumer goods sector

Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch multinational consumer goods company. Its product portfolio includes food, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products.

The goal of Unilever’s Global Partnership with the Foundation is to unlock the economic opportunities of the circular economy along the entire value chain. To contribute to the delivery of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan waste strategy commitments, the partnership will focus on optimising packaging and manufacturing material streams so that they become a source of value creation for the business and wider stakeholder community.

For consumer goods – such as food and for apparel and their packaging – which are short-lived and often transformed during use, the economic benefits of a circular design seem initially harder to capture. Yet recovering part of the US $2.6 trillion of material value lost each year is a huge opportunity for fast-moving consumer goods companies and Unilever will prove to be an important pathfinder within the industry.

Focus Areas

Unilever is working closely with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation across three focus areas:

  • Development of pilot projects to develop Fast Moving Circular Goods
  • Development of assets and resources required to scale change across the business
  • Collaboration with industry stakeholders in order to catalyse systemic change towards circular flows of plastic packaging materials (as part of Project MainStream)

Activity

Unilever is a Core Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy initiative, which works to rethink and redesign the future of plastics, starting with packaging.

Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever

"The concept of a circular economy promises a way out. Here products do not quickly become waste, but are reused to extract their maximum value before safely and productively returning to the biosphere. Most importantly for business leaders, such an economy can deliver growth. Innovative product designers and business leaders are already venturing into this space."

Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever