First, let’s give credit where credit is due. To Unilever’s credit, their CEO Paul Polman is trying to turn a company around that one can equate to the turning of an aircraft carrier. It is a slow process.

Without going into the great detail of what the company is doing, the most important aspect of this article is that the company is moving in the right direction rather than the wrong direction. More importantly, Unilever is making its efforts a new normal rather than something that is deemed unusual.

Further, the company has noted that energy efficiency has saved the company more than $430 million since 2008. I am not certain what the ROI is on that number, but I presume that the company is satisfied with that return.

Of course, once one company moves towards sustainability, others are forced to follow suit or be deemed luddites.

Let’s remember that this article was in the business section and one has to applaud Unilever’s goal of recognizing that “It is essential that economic growth and natural resource use be decoupled,” Mr. Cramer of BSR said. “Simply replicating Western consumption patterns as they are today would require more natural resources than are available.”

Read the full article:
Unilever Finds That Shrinking Its Footprint Is a Giant Task
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