Unilever commits to replacing all carbon from fossil fuels in its cleaning products Business

The chemicals used in the company’s products represent the largest proportion of its carbon footprint (46%) throughout their lifecycle.

Therefore, by moving away from chemicals derived from fossil fuels in product formulations, the company will be able to reduce its carbon footprint.

He expects the initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of product formulations by up to 20 percent.

Peter ter Kulve, President of Home Care at Unilever, said: “Clean Future is our vision to radically overhaul our business.

“As an industry, we need to break our dependence on fossil fuels, including as a raw material for our products.

“We have to stop pumping carbon under the ground when there is enough carbon on and above the ground if we can learn to use it on a large scale.

“We have seen unprecedented demand for our cleaning products over the past few months and we are extremely proud to be playing our part in helping to keep people safe in the fight against Covid-19.

“But that shouldn’t be a reason for convenience.

“We cannot be distracted from the environmental crises facing our world – our home -. Pollution. Destruction of natural habitats. The climate emergency.

“This is the home we share and we have a responsibility to protect it.”

Unilever is also committing € 1bn (around £ 889m) to Clean Future to fund biotechnology research, CO2 and waste use, and low-carbon chemistry – which will move the transition away from chemicals derived from fossil fuels.

The investment will also be used to create biodegradable and water-efficient product formulations, to halve the use of virgin plastic by 2025.

Non-renewable fossil carbon sources (identified in the Carbon Rainbow as black carbon) will be replaced by captured CO2 (purple carbon), plants and biological sources (green carbon), marine sources such as algae (blue carbon) ) and carbon recovered from waste (gray carbon).

Tanya Steele, managing director of conservation charity WWF UK, said: “The world needs to switch from fossil fuels to renewable resources which reduce the pressure on our fragile ecosystems and help restore nature.

“These important commitments from Unilever, combined with a strong sustainable sourcing, have real potential to make a significant contribution as we move towards an economy that works with nature, not against it.