Employees at Unilever Canada take part in a green area clean up.Supplied
Bruce Bugden is happy that Canada moved from plastic grocery bags to reusable ones – but now, he says with a laugh, everyone has more reusable bags than they can use. So, Bugden and other members of the Sustainable Living Team, an employee resource group (ERG) at Unilever Canada, came up with a creative solution: bins at the company store in Unilever’s Toronto head office now invite employees to take a bag if they need one or leave one if they don’t.
“It’s working really well,” says Bugden, who is a customer business development manager at Unilever. “You can get rid of some bags, and we don’t have to produce more bags for the store.”
The Sustainable Living Team, led by Bugden, is one of Unilever’s most active ERGs. Its members put on events and initiatives aimed at making a positive impact on the planet and educating colleagues about how they can do the same. Events have included lunch and learns on environmental topics with raffle giveaways of sustainable products, trash cleanups at parks and beaches, and clothes donation drives around the holidays. The group also made the Toronto office plastic cutlery-free.
“It’s rewarding, because you feel like you’re making an impact on others – even that little impact of thinking about, ‘should this go in the recycling bin or the garbage?’ or ‘maybe I won’t buy this product because of the wrapper it’s using.’”
Unilever itself has long been committed to sustainability and made it a core part of its business strategy and growth plans, says Catherine McVitty, sustainable business manager. The Canadian division of the multinational consumer packaged goods company has four major sustainability goals: to achieve net-zero emissions, create resilient and regenerative natural and agricultural ecosystems, end plastic pollution, and ensure a decent livelihood and living wage across its value chain. McVitty says she appreciates the company’s rigour in not only setting ambitious goals but mapping out realistic plans to achieve them.
“We have something called a climate transition action plan, of how we’re going to get to the net-zero target, with interim targets along the way, and it has looked at everything from sourcing raw materials to how we distribute them to how consumers use our products, and made sure we created a plan that’s achievable,” she says. “I’m proud of the level of science and research that goes into all of our sustainability goals.”
McVitty joined Unilever in 1992 in a role that involved working with local environmental organizations to get their input on the company’s sustainability strategy – leaving an early career in politics for a private-sector job that she hoped could positively impact the climate.
Today, her tasks are a mix of keeping employees up to date on the company’s strategy, working with external stakeholders and managing Unilever’s regulatory compliance with new federal and provincial rules around packaging and plastics.
She says the company’s unwavering commitment to sustainability has kept her there for the past three decades.
“I admire that regardless of what’s going on in terms of public sentiment, Unilever has stuck to its sustainability priorities, knowing that over the long term, it makes us a more resilient company,” McVitty says. “It helps us to manage our costs and our supply chains. It’s the reason why I stayed – regardless of sentiment, they’ve continued to push forward with ambitious environmental goals.”
More from Canada’s Greenest Employers
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.