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Use of Life Cycle Assessment by UnileverBenefits and Consequences

P J McKeownSafety and Environment Assurance Centre

Unilever

Life Cycle Assessment of Food ProductsTechnological Institute, Aarhus

8th February 2001

Unilever

SEAC

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Outline of Presentation

Unilever - Who are they?

Unilever Environment Policy and Strategy

Life Cycle Assessment - supporting the strategy

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Unilever - Who are they?

Multinational organisation

>275,000 employees

Factories in >90 countries

Sales in over 150 Countries

Main product categories

Foods and Home and Personal Care Products

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Unilever - Foods Brands

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Unilever Environment Policy

Unilever is committed to meeting the needs of customers and consumers in an environmentally sound and sustainablemanner, through continuous improvement in environmental performance in all our activities

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Unilever Environment Policy

• Measure and report environmental performance of

manufacturing sites

• Target setting - continuous improvement

• EMS - all sites audited with improvement plans

• Moving towards external accreditation - ISO 14001

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Unilever Environment Strategy

• Eco-efficiency in the supply chain

• Eco-innovation in products and services

• Sustainable Development Initiatives

• Communication

•Life Cycle Assessment helps to support the Strategy

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Eco-efficiency in the Supply Chain

Historically - main focus of environmental improvements on

own processes

LCA applied to many of our product systems

• Started in late 1980s

• Identify areas of significant environmental impact

• Quantify Unilever’s contribution to the total impact

• Broaden focus of environmental improvements

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Example Product Systems Studied Using LCA

• Frozen vegetables• Ice Cream• Tea• Tomato-based sauce• Margarine and spreads• Laundry products• Household cleaners • Shower gels• Toothpaste

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Position of Unilever in Food Supply Chain

Unilever

Factory

Primary Raw MaterialExtraction

Agriculture

Consumer

Raw MaterialProcessor

Distribution/RetailNetwork

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VEGETABLE PROCESSING

FACTORY

FROZEN PRODUCT IN COLD STORE

DISTRIBUTION / RETAIL

ENERGY

WATER

EMISSIONS

PACKAGING

MATERIALS

VEGETABLE AGRICULTURE

FERTILISERS

PESTICIDES

DIESEL FUEL

LAND, WATER

GREENHOUSE GASES

RUN-OFF

LEACHATE

RESOURCES

ELECTRICITY

NATURAL GAS

WATER

CONSUMER USE / WATER HEATING

PACKAGING WASTE

ELECTRICITY NATURAL GAS

ELECTRICITY

TRANSPORT

FUELS

PACKAGING WASTE

CONSUMER TRANSPORT AND

STORAGE

FUELS ELECTRICITY

FUELS

WATER POLLUTION SOLID WASTE

REPACK PROCESS FOR PEAS

Frozen Vegetable Life Cycle

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Outcome of Food LCA Studies

Many impacts occur both upstream and downstream of our operations

To achieve significant improvements and benefits for the environment a new approach was required:

• Engage in partnership with the supply chain

• Educate consumer

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Eco-innovation in Products and Services

• Awareness raising - product developers/marketing

• Integrate eco-efficiency into design

• Include environmental considerations in innovation awards

• Improve understanding of consumer attitudes

• Work in partnership with industry and retail trade

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Integrate Eco-efficiency into Design

• Use of existing tools to assess environmental impact of innovation projects

• Development of a range of tools for use at decision points in Innovation Process Model

• Pilot the use of eco-efficiency parameters to enhance creativity

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Decision gates

Innovation Process Model

Ideas Feasibility CapabilityLaunchPrepn.

Post LaunchEvaln.

Rollout

Checklist/Matrix

Screening LCA

Full LCA

LAUNCH

Environmental Assessment Tools

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Making Tools Available

• LCA - Currently “niche” application

• Often seen as “time-consuming”, “expensive” ..

• Life cycle approaches must be simplified and made

available

• Web tool being developed for product/process developers

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Windows NT Server (Port Sunlight)

LCA Web application and tools (to create control panels and standard report formats)

Product System Templates, TEAM™ Software, Databases

END USER (Trained)

Remote PC plus Web browser (e.g. IE5)

EXPERT / SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR (SEAC LCA)

Remote PC plus Web browser (e.g. IE5)

Request submitted via WEB using standard Control Panel

Results returned via WEB in selected standard format

Create product templates, control panels, standard report formats, database maintenance and access control

Experts use system for LCA studies

LCA Web Tool

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Sustainable Development Initiatives

Unilever committed to 3 sustainable development themes

• Sustainable Fisheries

• Sustainable Agriculture

• Clean Water Stewardship

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Background to Sustainability - OBIA

Overall Business Impact Assessment (OBIA) - Unilever Imprint

LCA of Unilever’s Global Business

Convert to relevant potential environmental impacts

Scale using estimated total global potential environmental impacts

Compare with normalised economic value added (sales/global GDP)

Identify areas of potential un-sustainability

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Unilever’s Contribution to Environmental Performance Indicators

energy

global warming

acidification

photochemical smog

ozone depletion

nutrification

solid waste

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

environmentimpactmore thaneconomicvalue added

environmentimpactless thaneconomicvalue added

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= sales as proportion of Global GDP

Bars = Unilever potential impact as proportion of estimated total global potential impact

Sustainable Agriculture

• The supply chain for over 2/3 of Unilever’s raw materials starts at farms or plantations

• There are many problems associated with intensive agricultural systems– Loss of soil fertility– Reduction in biodiversity– Use of water (over 70% of global water abstraction used in

agriculture)– Decline in quality of rural life

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Sustainable Agriculture Pilot Projects

• Black leaf tea

• Peas

• Spinach

• Tomatoes

• Palm Oil

• Other oil seeds

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LCA and Sustainable Agriculture

• LCA methodology applied to each sustainable agriculture pilot crop

• Provides understanding of environmental impacts across agricultural supply chains

• Places Agricultural stage in context with rest of supply chain

• Aids in the development of sustainability indicators

Approach to Sustainability Indicators

• Produce high-yield crops while minimising losses during harvest and processing; increase nutritional quality while keeping the amount of inputs (e.g. fertilisers and pesticides) as low as possible

• Ensure that soil fertility, water, biodiversity and air are not

adversely affected

• Use as many renewable resources as possible and minimise the use of non-renewables

• Enable communities to protect and improve their well-being and environments

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Sustainable Agriculture

Ten Key Indicators:

• Soil Fertility & Health

• Soil Loss

• Nutrients

• Pest Management

• Biodiversity

• Product Value

• Energy

• Water

• Social and Human Capital

• Local Economy

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Clean Water Stewardship

• Water is used in the supply chain of our ingredients

• Water is used in Unilever factories

• Water is a vital ingredient in many of our products

• Consumers often need water to use our products

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LCA and Clean Water Stewardship

• Water imprint undertaken based on OBIA approach

• Regional assessment is now being undertaken

• Based on Life Cycle approach across supply chain

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Communication and LCA

Internal • Awareness Raising • Innovation support

External • Trade • Regulators • European Commission • Industry

• Corporate Environment Report • Unilever Internet Site • Conferences, Presentations • Brochures, publications

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Individual Product LCA

• Identify significant environmental aspects across the life cycle of products

• Place Unilever contribution in context

• Aid in Internal communication and awareness raising

• Support for new product launch (PR)

• Uptake of environmental aspects in product development/innovation (ecodesign)

• Tool development to extend use of LCA to a wider audience (web)

Summary (1)

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Strategic Level - LCA

• Assessment of Unilever’s global environmental impact

• Contributed to the initiation of the Sustainable Development projects

• Life cycle approach is integral to certain aspects of the Sustainable Development projects

LCA as a tool and concept is a key, integral component of Unilever’s environmental strategy

Summary (2)