Case Study: Unilever's Water Challenge

Fresh water is one of Canada's most important natural resources. Given the Great Lakes and a series of watersheds draining into three coastlines, the world associates Canada with water in the same way it might associate Saudi Arabia with oil.

In the early 1990s, Unilever, manufacturer of some of the world's most recognized consumer household products and foods, examined its environmental footprint and realized something big: without sufficient supplies of water, most of its products would be useless.

Water, Water Everywhere

A full two-thirds of Unilever's raw materials come from farms or plantations. Everything the company
uses-be it canola or tea or tomatoes-needs water to grow. Its factories use water to wash, cool, and process its products. Water is also a key ingredient in many Unilever products, such as ice cream, ice tea, pasta sauce, shampoo, and liquid detergent.

Furthermore, Unilever's consumers must have clean water to use its products.

In 1995, Unilever initiated a worldwide effort to reduce its consumption of fresh water. It started with quantifying its water usage: according to estimates from the company's life-cycle assessment manager, Unilever operations and consumer needs used a staggering 1 percent of global domestic water supply.

That number rang alarm bells in Canada, where Unilever products made up the largest or second-largest market share in several of their categories. The company took steps to reduce its Canadian water footprint. A poster child for Unilever Canada's effort was its Becel manufacturing plant in Rexdale, Ontario: its water use dropped 48 percent since 1999. Other conservation initiatives have reduced the plant's annual production of greenhouse gases by 23,000 tons, its electricity use by 23 percent, and its natural gas consumption by 46 percent.

The plant's achievements were recognized with two Green Toronto Awards in 2006 and 2007 and the green attitude has been applied throughout the corporation. Unilever's Canadian manufacturing operations reduced their water use by about 40 percent in the last five years. Since Unilever began measuring its water use in 1995, it has reduced its total water consumption by almost 60 percent. These achievements were largely due to water recycling and conservation efforts, as well as improved processing techniques and product innovations.

Advertising for Change

In Canada, Unilever is leading its sector thanks to the introduction of Sunlight 3x, a reformulated laundry detergent that is three times concentrated to save water, energy, fuel, and emissions. Consumer response has been excellent. Since 2006, Sunlight saved 3.3 million liters of water in its manufacturing process, enough cardboard to cover nearly twenty-seven football fields, and 177,000 thousand liters of diesel fuel.

Impressive as they are, these initiatives alone are not enough to turn the tide of Canada's water supply needs. To better understand their attitudes toward water supply and conservation, Unilever and RBC Financial Group commissioned research company Ipsos-Reid to poll 2,000 Canadians in early 2008. The results, released in March 2008, are startling: Canadians, the poll confirmed, are far too confident in the country's fresh water supply, despite the undeniable, negative impacts of climate change.

A recent report by Natural Resources Canada confirmed Unilever's fears: Canada's fresh water supply is at significant risk, with water levels in many of the country's rivers and lakes already dropping significantly. A shortage of drinking water is a real possibility. If that happens, industries that rely on water-oil, gas, hydroelectricity, agriculture, etc.-will also suffer.

Unilever has now embarked on a marketing campaign to change people's attitudes about water. Go Blue is a multidimensional, multiyear strategy aiming to help Canadians reduce their demand for fresh water.

The strategy includes an advertising campaign, Website, promotional partnerships with Unilever's customers, and an educational program in partnership with experts from the scientific community geared toward increasing water awareness.

Unilever's worldwide mission is to add vitality to life. Its commitment to water sustainability over the entire life cycle of its products demonstrates corporate social responsibility makes sense for profits and for the environment.

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