BusinessWeek: When Unilever (UN) challenged its scientists to come up with a detergent that uses fewer resources, greener materials, and less packaging, few thought it was possible. Yet Small & Mighty, the industry’s first super-concentrated liquid detergent, launched in October 2005 in a partnership with U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), 18 months ahead of rivals such as Procter & Gamble (PG). What started as a means to boost Unilever’s green credentials now is opening up avenues of innovation that are helping to drive growth in the company’s once-lackluster laundry unit. Since rolling out Small & Mighty in Europe in January 2007, more than 30 million bottles have been sold.
The virtue of the product is that consumers can wash the same amount of laundry with one-third the detergent. Smaller packaging means each bottle uses 55% less plastic, enabling retailers to stock three times the number of bottles in the same space, saving on labor and out-of-stock costs. There’s big savings for Unilever, too, in manufacturing and transportation. The company says it saves 500 million gallons of water and 150 million pounds of plastic each year. And the smaller bottle means Unilever can transport three times as much product in every truck, saving 26 million gallons of diesel each year. “It’s a good example of how good environmental practice is good for the company’s bottom line,” says Keith Weed, Unilever’s group vice-president for home care.
Unilever’s Laundry Biz Is Greener, and Growing [BusinessWeek]
Unilever’s Sustainable Detergents
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Serious doubts have been raised about Unilever’s claims regarding its socially and environmentally sustainable supply chain. A recent expose of appalling working conditions in Unilever factories in Pakistan raises doubts about one of company’s biggest global brands Lipton.
At Unilever’s tea factory in Khanewal there are 745 workers making Lipton tea. But only 22 have permanent jobs while the other 723 are casual workers. Not casual as in ‘relaxed sipping tea all day’ but casual as in ‘100% disposable’.
These 723 workers are hired indirectly though labor hire agencies on a temporary basis for 10, 15, 30 years. Which means working on minimum wage, no paid leave, no sick leave, no insurance, no pensions for 10, 15, 30 years. And for the same work they’re paid just 33% of what the permanent workers are paid and with none of the benefits. And of course no job security. They come to work every day not knowing if there’s work. If there isn’t then they go home again with nothing, no pay at all. For most workers this has been going on every day for the past 10 to 15 years….
In Karachi there are now 800 casual workers making Lipton & Brooke Bond tea. Unilever Pakistan makes an enormous profit from the country’s best-selling tea brands, but doesn’t take responsibility for any of these workers. They are 100% outsourced, so they are 100% disposable. They are casualties of a scheme that replaces decent jobs with fear and poverty wages.
For more information, visit: http://www.iuf.org/casualtea/