Unilever becomes sustainability partner of BD Business Summit

Bangladesh Business Summit 2023 brought Unilever Bangladesh Limited as the sustainability partner who brought attention to new and challenging areas as well. As the economy is transforming, new challenges like waste-management, responsible industrial behaviour, localised innovation and community empowerment were also highlighted.

Unilever is a company with a clear purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace. It has a long tradition of being a responsible and pioneering business.

Sustainability is at the heart of the business, and Unilever Bangladesh Limited (UBL) highlighted their multifaceted approach toward sustainability agenda in this country. UBL stall showcased their plastic waste management initiative, which is an important environmental issue in Bangladesh. Collection of post-consumption plastic waste, especially flexible plastic, is one of the most challenging stages of plastic waste management due to the lack of source segregation and lower recycling value of flexible plastic waste. To address this, they have initiated the largest municipal backed plastic waste management initiative in Bangladesh to strengthen the plastic waste value chain.

The company is proactively working to improve the waste management system, including infrastructure and capability development, new business models, and creating a circular economy for plastic waste. Last year, UBL has collected over 4,000 tonnes of plastic waste, which is 44% of Unilever Bangladesh's plastic footprint. Of the total collection, 63% is flexible packaging and 84% of the plastic got circularity.

The project also generated 50% additional waste value through incentivising and partnering with waste traders.

The company has been running a zero-landfill waste operations scheme since 2014, and continue to maintain its standard to send zero non-hazardous waste to landfill from our factories. Now every waste that gets produced during the production process of UBL has a destination for reusing, recycling, or co-processing rather than going to the landfill.

At Unilever, each of its brands are purpose-led and contribute to the betterment of people and the environment through their work in the field of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), healthcare and mental well-being. The Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital (LFH), UBL's longest running initiative, has delivered over one million healthcare services to more than 600,000 patients in remote regions in the last 20 years.

"We believe that we cannot be a sustainable business without creating a sustainable world for our future generations. Thus, our ethos of 'What is Good for Bangladesh is Good for Unilever' serves as our true north as we lead sustainability at Unilever Bangladesh," said Unilever CEO and Managing Director Zaved Akhtar.