Use of Life Cycle Assessment by Unilever

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Use of Life Cycle Assessment by Unilever Benefits
and Consequences
P J McKeown Safety and Environment Assurance
Centre Unilever
Life Cycle Assessment of Food Products Technologic
al Institute, Aarhus 8th February 2001
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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
• gt275,000 employees
• Factories in gt90 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 sustainable manner, 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 Unilevers
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
Primary Raw Material Extraction
Agriculture
Raw Material Processor
Unilever Factory
Distribution/Retail Network
Consumer
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Frozen Vegetable Life Cycle
FERTILISERS PESTICIDES DIESEL FUEL LAND, WATER
GREENHOUSE GASES RUN-OFF LEACHATE
VEGETABLE AGRICULTURE
ENERGY
ELECTRICITY NATURAL GAS WATER
VEGETABLE PROCESSING FACTORY
WATER POLLUTION SOLID WASTE
PACKAGING MATERIALS
EMISSIONS
REPACK PROCESS FOR PEAS
ELECTRICITY TRANSPORT FUELS
RESOURCES
FROZEN PRODUCT IN COLD STORE
DISTRIBUTION / RETAIL
PACKAGING WASTE
FUELS
CONSUMER TRANSPORT AND STORAGE
WATER
FUELS ELECTRICITY
CONSUMER USE / WATER HEATING
ELECTRICITY NATURAL GAS
PACKAGING WASTE
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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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Innovation Process Model
Decision gates

Post Launch Evaln.
LAUNCH

Launch Prepn.

Feasibility
Capability
Rollout
Ideas
Full LCA
Screening LCA
Checklist/ Matrix
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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EXPERT / SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR (SEAC
LCA) Remote PC plus Web browser (e.g. IE5)
LCA Web Tool
Create product templates, control panels,
standard report formats, database maintenance and
access control
Experts use system for LCA studies
Windows NT Server (Port Sunlight) LCA Web
application and tools (to create control panels
and standard report formats) Product System
Templates, TEAM Software, Databases
Request submitted via WEB using standard Control
Panel
Results returned via WEB in selected standard
format
END USER (Trained) Remote PC plus Web browser
(e.g. IE5)
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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 Unilevers 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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Unilevers Contribution to Environmental
Performance Indicators
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sales as proportion of Global GDP
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Bars Unilever potential impact as
proportion of estimated total global potential
impact
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3
environment
impact
more than
2
economic
value added
1
0
solid waste
ozone depletion
energy
acidification
nutrification
global warming
photochemical smog
SEAC
Unilever
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Sustainable Agriculture

• The supply chain for over 2/3 of Unilevers 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
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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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Summary (1)

• 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)

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Summary (2)

• Strategic Level - LCA
• Assessment of Unilevers 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 Unilevers environmental strategy