Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform
What can be achieved at farm level by Unilever alone is limited. We need the co-operation of others in the food industry to make progress in sustainable agriculture. That is why we worked with Nestlé and Danone to establish the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform) in 2002. The initiative today involves more than 20 companies from the food and beverage industry.
It aims to develop knowledge about sustainable agriculture and communicate widely with a range of stakeholders.
The SAI Platform has working groups on four commodity areas: dairy, arable and vegetable crops, coffee and fruit. Another working group addresses water-related issues. Unilever is an active member of most of the working groups.
Progress includes the development of an online database of best practice in water management. The SAI Platform also played a key role in establishing a Global Dairy Agenda for Action on Climate Change.
Management & governance
We involve stakeholders (non-governmental organisations, research institutes, agricultural experts and community organisations) in all aspects of our Sustainable Agriculture Programme. This helps us, for example, to develop indicators and assess our Lead Agriculture Programmes.
Established in 2011, the Sustainable Sourcing Advisory Board, which includes external experts, academics and representatives from NGOs, provides advice on Unilever’s sustainable sourcing programme. This includes the sustainable sourcing of renewable and non-renewable raw materials and other sustainability-related impacts in Unilever’s supply chain, from climate impact, biodiversity and water stress to labour conditions, poverty alleviation and the use of chemicals. The body replaces our previous Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Board that was established in 2000 and reflects the broader expertise needed to help deliver our Sustainable Living Plan targets. See Governance for more information.
Sustainable Sourcing Advisory Board (SSAB) members
Members are selected for their individual expertise, rather than to represent their organisations. Member biographies are available to download in related links.
Name | Institution | Country |
Janet Barber | Independent | UK |
David Bright | Oxfam GB | UK |
Colin Chartres | Internation Water Management Institute (IWMI) | Sri Lanka |
Daniel Gagnier | International Institute for Sustainable Development | Canada |
Alan Knight | Independent | UK |
Christophe Liebon | Intertek | Hong Kong |
Richard Perkins | WWF-UK | UK |
Rudy Rabbinge | University of Wageningen | Netherlands |
Tang Huajan | Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences | China |
Camilla Toulmin | International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) | US |
Anne Wallin | DOW Chemical Europe | Switzerland |
Tensie Whelan | Rainforest Alliance | US |
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
Unilever was one of the founders of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) – an industry-led initiative set up in co-operation with the conservation organisation WWF in 2004. NGO partners include Oxfam and Sawit Watch. Unilever’s Global Director of Sustainable Sourcing Development chairs the executive board. The Roundtable works with plantation owners and commercial users to devise standards for sustainable production.
See Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil for more on our involvement.
Round Table on Responsible Soy Association
We are members of the Round Table on Responsible Soy Association (RTRS), which seeks to establish agreed Principles and Criteria for responsible soy production. Our Global Director Sustainable Sourcing Development sits on the executive board and other Unilever people are contribute their knowledge to the expert chain of custody certification group.
Our achievements in fish sustainability
In 1996 we co-founded the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) with the conservation organisation WWF to establish a global standard for sustainable fisheries management. In 2006 we sold a large part of our frozen foods business, including our European fish business. In addition our Italian frozen foods business, Findus, was sold in July 2010. The sale comprised the leading brands: 4 Salti in Padella, Sofficini, Capitan Findus and That’s Amore, and a dedicated factory in Cisterna, Italy.
We are proud of what we achieved between 1996 and 2006. Although we were not able to reach our 100% sustainable sourcing target, there continues to be encouraging signs that consumers are making the connection between their food choices and the goal of sustainable sourcing. Retailers including Tesco, Walmart, Sainsbury’s and Carrefour, as well as many foodservice companies, now source from MSC-certified fisheries and worldwide over 8,000 seafood products now bear the MSC ecolabel.
Accelerating sustainable agricultural growth
In January 2011 a global partnership to accelerate sustainable agricultural growth was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Unilever joined 16 other companies – among them Walmart, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé and Kraft Foods – to support the New Vision for Agriculture. The partnership is backed by a coalition of businesses, governments and farmers, and seeks to improve food security, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity around the world.
The strategy’s aims echo those of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan in many ways. Its targets include decreasing greenhouse gas emissions per tonne by 20%, reducing rural poverty by 20% each decade and increasing production by 20%.
In Tanzania, we have co-chaired a public–private partnership initiative with the Tanzanian government which reflects the aims of the new vision. We helped to launch a ‘blueprint’ for the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) programme at Davos with the aim of transforming the area’s agricultural productivity.
As part of the programme, 350,000 hectares of land between Tanzania’s port of Dar es Salaam through Malawi, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are set to become some of Africa’s richest farmland. Tens of thousands of smallholder farmers along the corridor will have the chance to become commercial farmers with access to modern irrigation facilities, assuring local food security and creating at least 420,000 new employment opportunities in the agricultural value chain.
Funded by investment from Unilever and a range of global businesses, government agencies, farmers, foundations and other donors, SAGCOT’s targets are to generate annual farming revenues of $1.2 billion, while lifting more than 2 million local people permanently out of poverty.
This model has also been extended to Vietnam where, working in collaboration with the Vietnamese government, we are partnering to develop sustainable tea production.