Unilever Canada employees volunteer during a garbage clean-up activity.Supplied
When it comes to being a green employer, nothing is too big or small for Unilever Canada, Inc. to act on.
And that has huge benefits when talking about a company with revenues of $50.5 billion, operating in more than 190 countries.
“Sustainability is part of Unilever globally,” says Tanja Lauc, head of human resources, Canada at Toronto-based Unilever Canada. “You see the impacts globally, but it also translates locally.”
For example, she says, the company’s four global pillars are climate action, protecting nature and biodiversity, eliminating plastic waste and improving livelihoods.
And that translates in Canada to a focus on partnering with farmers on regenerative agriculture to restore soil health, enhance biodiversity and sequester atmospheric carbon; to reducing emissions at local manufacturing sites, such as the plan to reduce emissions by 50 to 60 per cent at its Toronto plant in Rexdale; and participating in multi-company pilots, along with competitors, to reduce plastic and packaging waste.
The sustainability factor “really comes to life in the manufacturing facilities, because that’s where you can make such a huge impact, from how you package goods to how you manufacture products,” says Lauc.
As an example, concentrated products need less plastic packaging, use less energy and release fewer emissions in their transportation, warehousing and display.
To that end, Unilever’s research and development teams are working on packaging innovations and creating products which use less water or require the use of less energy in the home.
“But sustainability shows up in our everyday culture, as well,” says Lauc, citing Earth Day events the company hosts and a Day of Service, held in September, where individuals can take part in group events planned by Unilever, like neighbourhood cleanups, or find other environmental initiatives to support to give back to their local community.
These efforts don’t just improve the environment, they create well-being among employees who feel good working for a company that is focused on environmental issues, she says. “In interviews, people will say I was attracted to Unilever as an organization not just because of the big brands, but because of your commitment to sustainability.”
Employees, too, who are members of the company’s Sustainable Living Team, search out ways they can help the environment.
“We look at what small actions we can do in the community that will have some type of impact,” says team leader Bruce Bugden, who is also the customer development analytics team manager of Unilever’s analytics team.
The group may organize employees to do park cleanups or tree plantings for a day.
And within the office, they look for environmentally friendly ways of doing things, such as replacing plastic cutlery in the lunchroom with metal forks, knives and spoons and installing bins outside of the company store to hold fabric shopping bags that people don’t need, so others can just use those instead of buying new ones.
The team also looks for ways to inform their colleagues about environmentally friendly steps they can take outside of the office, such as pinpointing where containers are located for items that are not recycled by the city.
To build awareness, the committee also screens documentaries that deal with environmental issues, such an initiative to scoop plastics out of the floating garbage island in the ocean with fishing nets, says Bugden. And it once organized a tour of a recycling facility to help staff become more aware about what they are throwing out, he says.
“We’re just making people aware that it’s as easy as this to recycle.”
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Advertising feature produced by Canada’s Top 100 Employers, a division of Mediacorp Canada Inc. The Globe and Mail’s editorial department was not involved.