Unilever is putting its suppliers under pressure to produce sustainable chemicals for laundry and cleaning detergents. The British-Dutch multinational, known for Omo, Glorix and Robijn, wants to replace all ingredients in the next few years that are made with fossil fuels, like polymers and perfumes. According to the company there are more environmentally friendly alternatives to dissolve stains and give laundry a nice scent.
Now, the chemicals in detergents are responsible for almost half of the pollution these products cause. To make the switch to sustainable and biodegradable chemicals possible and to help the industry, Unilever will invest €1 billion in the next ten years. The company sends “an important message” to her suppliers by doing this. “If you want to continue doing business with Unilever, you need to align with the new vision on cleaning”, says director and Erasmus School of Economics alumnus Peter ter Kulve.
Ter Kulve, who graduated in Economics and Business Economics in 1989, is in charge of the Home Care-division, an important activity within Unilever. Last year, the division generated 21% of Unilever’s income with a revenue of €10,8 billion. This year, the detergent branch is growing fast. In the past months, consumers bought a lot of soap products, to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
Unilever’s major investment is in line with the food and detergent group’s aim to produce without CO2-emissions. Ultimately, this investment will drastically reduce the CO2-footprint of its cleaning division and will take up “a dominant part” of Unilever’s total R&D-budget, says Ter Kulve.
Ter Kulve discussed this switch to environmentally friendly detergents in an interview with FD. You can read the full article here.
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Peter ter Kulve graduated from Erasmus School of Economics in 1989.
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