Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, took home a salary of $10.4M in 2015 and $10M in 2014. And, why should he not? He exceeded expectations of growth in 2014 \u2013 generating revenues of over $66 billion and profits of over $6.4 billion. (1)<\/p>\n
However, whenever Polman takes the stage to share his thoughts on the future of his industry, one can truly observe a stark divergence from the traditional demeanor of a Fortune 500 CEO. Unflinchingly and publicly declaring that his pay is too high, he would often attempt at lightening the audience\u2019s mood with his uncanny sense of humor. An excerpt from one of his openings at the Stanford GSB:<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at the airport and overheard a heated discussion between three people \u2013 a doctor, an engineer, and an economist. The Doctor said that he has the oldest profession in the world which started when Eve was created from Adam\u2019s rib. Perplexed by the argument, the Engineer reasoned that the sciences started right from the chaotic origins of the universe. The Economist smirked saying that who created chaos in the first place?\u201d (2)<\/p>\n
The intended humor often does not elicit a guffaw among the audience, but it does set the stage for one of the topics which is most important to Polman and Unilever.<\/p>\n
At the Global Landscapes Forum \u201914, much before the GSB talk, Polman laid out in explicit words, \u201cCommercial agriculture accounted for 71 percent of tropical deforestation in the last 12 years. That translates into the loss of 130 million hectares (321 million acres) of forests. In fact, that loss contributes about 15 percent to global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire transport sector. These are the inconvenient facts.\u201d (3)<\/p>\n
The blame is pointed at not just one of the most environmentally demanding industries in the world, but rather, it is an inward reflection, unravelling the massive impact of increasing costs of food, water and utilities. The impact is immediate even today \u2013 it has been directly affecting the bottom line of Unilever and other consumer goods companies. It would be an understatement to claim that fixing this challenge is a hard problem, but with the increasing population, global food demand is expected to rise two times while the available land for cultivation is not projected to increase. So, in most certainty, the time to act in now.<\/p>\n
Trying to sustainably survive and grow in the future, Unilever has taken the onus to eliminate the causation and impact of climate change from its entire supply chain \u2013 right from the growing fields, to the end customers\u2019 hand. They are aiming to mitigate the effects of climate change with improvements in technology, processes improvements, alternative energy, along with presenting the thought leadership for businesses across the world. To achieve the target of sustainable sourcing of all agricultural raw materials (including tropical commodities, such as palm, soy and the paper and board used in its packaging) by 2020, Unilever is undertaking steps to employ renewable energy in all sites across Europe and North America, trying to eliminate the use of hydrofluorocarbons from refrigeration plants, and spearheading the creation of the Tropical Food Alliance which is a partnership between 400 consumer goods companies, major governments and NGOs. Further, to facilitate governments across the world to take actionable steps towards changing policies concerning climate change, Unilever is an active member of various advocacy groups \u2013 including the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. They are also calling upon the members of the European Union to adopt legally-binding targets to improve energy efficiency by 2030. (4), (5)<\/p>\n
In addition to the commendable efforts put in by Unilever so far, they should try to harden their stance on the definition of sustainable businesses. As a bold leader, they must restrict the prospect of businesses where the environmental consequences are bound to increase with the company\u2019s growth. They should also consolidate their efforts on changing consumer demand of products which require high amounts of inputs. Also, they should encourage entrepreneurs to develop ideas and technologies which can be incubated and incorporated into Unilever\u2019s value chain.<\/p>\n
To conclude, Miguel Veiga-Pestana (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) sums it up perfectly, \u201cIf every major company affected by climate change \u2013 not only in the food and beverage sector, but other impacted sectors such as tourism, insurance and transport \u2013 were to address the issue as one of business survival, and step change their efforts for delivery, we could together make a significant impact\u201d.<\/p>\n
Word Count – 742 words.<\/p>\n
Sources:<\/p>\n
How Paul Polman, a strong advocate for striving towards sustainability, is creating impact for one of the world's most well-known companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1883,"featured_media":12559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[990,63,430,1815,1814,1102],"class_list":["post-12464","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-complexsupplychains","category-consumer-goods","category-cpg","category-food-and-beverages","category-paul-polman","category-unilever"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/climate-change-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\n