With big business comes big responsibility

Last year, I made the biggest move of my career to date. Having previously worked for a number of small consulting agencies and a start-up accelerator, I moved to Unilever. In this LinkedIn blog, I’ll explain how moving to a business with sustainability at its core has given me the ability to make a bigger impact on the world. 

People know me as someone who cares about, not only the environment, but also about creating a sustainable future and economic empowerment for people from all parts of the world. Which is why working for Unilever is such a good fit. In my eyes, Unilever is a company that puts all its efforts in growing its business sustainably, by decoupling its environmental footprint from growth, while increasing the organisation’s positive social impact.

I believe that with big business comes big responsibility. By working on embedding sustainability in the brands and business of one of the biggest companies in the world, I have the opportunity to help leverage Unilever’s scale to make a real impact through Unilever’s sustainability strategy – and therefore, change the world for the better. This was the driver behind my move.

Becoming part of the solution

Businesses have the opportunity to create a huge positive impact on the world. They have the financial and human resources to step up to the task of making positive changes in the environment, enhancing livelihoods, and improving health and well-being. An international company such as Unilever can be part of the solution: when you reach as many consumers on a daily basis as we do, you do not just need to take responsibility for the way you produce your products, you also need to make the most of the enormous opportunity you have to spread a message and have a positive impact. This justifies your reason to exist. As our CEO Paul Polman states:

At Unilever we strongly believe that business should give and not take from the societies and environments on which it relies in the first place.

It was this kind of leadership and the opportunity to make a real impact that first attracted me to Unilever. I chose to work for a company that puts sustainable business at its core: manufacturing its products sustainably, taking responsibility across the entire value chain (from farmers and manufacturers to consumers), and creating brands with a purpose.

Our strategy: brands with purpose

Let me give you an example: Wall’s – the umbrella brand of Magnum, Cornetto and of course the most famous Dutch ice lolly, ‘Raketje’ – initiated an employment programme to sell its ice creams. The ‘I’m Wall’s’ programme helps unemployed young people in Europe and unskilled socially excluded people in developing countries develop business skills and access training to become micro-entrepreneurs.

As part of ‘I’m Walls’, more than 40,000 people started their own vendor businesses, selling ice cream and developing both their skills and self-confidence. I think that’s the most sustainable way to approach socio-economic development: helping people to become self-sufficient through business opportunities that lifts them out of poverty.

Domestos – where I’m from known as Glorix - is another striking example of a brand that uses its products to improve the lives of consumers, addressing hygiene issues in public places and schools. As a huge name in household cleaning products, it is well placed to promote the benefits of using clean toilets and to help make toilets accessible to people across the world. In Central-Eastern Europe alone, the brand has created a better school environment for more than 300,000 children with its Domestos School Programme.

Telling the sustainability story

As Sustainable Business & Communications advisers, my team and I help the business to identify projects that can deliver our sustainable living plan targets – then turn them into a story consumers understand and want to engage with.

Let’s take Knorr, one of our biggest brands and famous for its stocks and seasonings. Before I started working at Unilever, I did not know that Knorr sustainably sources and produces its ingredients, or that the brand supports farmers to turn their farms into sustainable landmark farms. Agriculture plays a significant role in environmental damage, so the fact that Knorr is addressing this issue by demonstrating the best standards in sustainable sourcing, literally covering the process from farm to fork, is a huge positive.

To successfully tell a brand’s sustainability story, you need to involve your customers in a way that is relevant to them. For Knorr, we invited 30 bloggers and social influencers to a site in Badajoz, Spain, for a behind-the-scenes experience. The two-day event gave bloggers an honest and transparent insight into the company so that they could see the farm to fork process for themselves. Through the blogs that come out of the event, coupled with social platforms and influencers, we hope to engage consumers and demonstrate Knorr’s – and Unilever’s – environmental mission to improve farming for a sustainable world.

You can inspire change

I truly believe that every business, big or small, can be a force for good. It all comes down to using your core strength, to educate, empower or further a societal or environmental issue.

There are also many ways you can drive a strategy with purpose on an individual level. You can support change by simply becoming more aware of societal and environmental issues, and by buying products that you know are sustainable or that have a purpose. But to make a real difference, you need to stay critical in your professional role, too. If you have ideas on how your company could do business more sustainably and have a positive impact on society, do what you can to find leaders who are receptive of your ideas and willing to take those further. That is how you can truly inspire change: you may start small, but when you do it right you can have a big impact on the world.

Are you looking to join a company with purpose? At Unilever you contribute to building a brighter future with our sustainable business strategy. Follow us on LinkedIn to find out more.