Uni Lev Erlca

7/27/2019 Uni Lev Erlca

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Applying Life CycleThinking in Unilever

Dr Peter Shonfield

Overview

g Introduction to Unilever

g Life cycle assessment (LCA)

nwhat is LCA?n applying LCA to innovation

n integrating LCA into strategy

development

g Sustainability Initiatives


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Unilever... facts and figures

g 240 000 employees

g 2003 turnover ~ 43 billion

g 400 manufacturing sites reporting in

76 countries

g Develops, manufactures and sells

n foods and tea-based drinks

n home and personal care products

g Every day 150 million consumers buya Unilever product

Unilever: Foods

Our foods brands include:

g Knorr

g Bertolli

g PG Tips

g Magnum

g Liptons

g Hellmans

g Colemans


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Unilever: Home and

Personal Care

Our home and personal care brands include:

g Dove

g Cif

g Persil

g Domestos

g Sunsilk

g Comfort

gLux

What is Life Cycle Assessment?

LCA is a tool for evaluating the

environmental burdens associated with aproduct, process or activity over its entire

life cycle


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Scope of LCA

Environmental Impacts

Using renewable

materials?

Choice of technology

for extracting raw

material?

Polluting productionprocesses?

DisposalIngredients Manufacture Distribution Use


How will product get to

customers?

How much energy will

the product use?


What happens when the

product is finished with?

How will it be disposed

of?

Can it be

reused/recycled?

Cradle Grave

LCA Methodology

Raw

Material

Raw

MaterialUseUse End of LifeEnd of Life

Emissions to air, water and land

Manufacturing & DistributionManufacturing & Distribution

Raw material and energy consumption


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LCA Methodology

Define Scope &

Boundary

Model Processes

& Activities

Build ModelLife Cycle

InventoryInputs:

Raw

Materials, Energy

Carriers, Water

Outputs: Airborne

& Waterborne

Emissions, Solid

Waste

Life Cycle Impact

AssessmentGlobal Warming

Acidification

Resource Depletion

Eutrophication

Etc.

Output: Eco-profile


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Value and Benefit of LCA

g LCA is a holistic technique

g Helps avoid the problem of burden shifting

g Used to identify where impacts occur in the

supply chain and where major improvements

can be made

g LCA can assist with developing strategy to

reduce impacts

But there are drawbacks...

g Time consuming

g Requires large amounts of data

g Data quality is importantg Results are often dependent upon the

assumptions made

g Not suitable for assessing all environmental

impacts


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Applications of LCA

externalinternal

tactical

strategic

Industry

Benchmarking

Technology

Assessment

Sales

Support

GHG

Measurement

Performance

Improvement

Product Design

Sustainability

Review

Labelling

Environmental

Reporting

Marketing

Environmental

Reporting

Labelling

Performance

Improvement

Product Design

GHG

Measurement

Sales

Support

Sustainability

Review

Generic

Data Sets

LCA in the Innovation Process

g Product/process comparisons

nAssess product/process options and

improvements

n Explore design alternatives (e.g. materials,

recycling, in-use habits, disposal, etc.)

g Category Assessments

n Improve understanding of product

environmental performance

n Identify hot-spots


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Unilever LCA Studies

g HPC

n Laundry

n Dishwash

n Wipes

n Deodorants

n Toothpaste

n Shampoo

n Soap

n Showergel

g Foods

n Ice Cream

n Frozen Peas &

Spinach

n Tomato Sauces

n Margarine

n Tea

n Savoury

n Dressings

SURFACTANT BUILDER STAINREMOVERFOAM

CONTROL

AGENT

ANTI-

CORROSION

AGENT

SOIL

SUSPENDER

MINORS

MANUFACTURING

PLANT

FW POWDERPACKAGING

CARDBOARD

PLASTIC

ENERGY

GLUE

ENERGY

SCRAP

RECYCLE LANDFILL INCINERATE

SOLID

WASTE

FABRIC WASHING

PRODUCT

WASHING MACHINE

WATER-BORNE

EFFLUENT

SEWAGE WORKS

Discharge to Environment

Sludge

Solids


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Identifying Areas for

Improvement

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

%o

flifecycletotal

Ingredients Packaging Product ion Transport Use Disposal

Energy Global Warming

Fabric washing product

Identifying Areas for

Improvement

Fabric washing product

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

%o

flifecyc

letotal

Ingredients Packaging Product ion Transport Use Disposal

Solid Waste Eutrophication


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Actions taken

g Development of unit dose products such

as tablets and liquid capsules to prevent

over-dosing

g The Wash-Right campaign to reduce

impacts during the consumer use phase

n avoid under-filling the machine

n use lowest temperature

n use correct dose of detergent

n dispose of packaging properly

Brochures

see www.unilever.com under

Environmental Management/LCA


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Measure Environmental

Improvementsg Look at European washing powders 1976-1996

g Product changesn formulation

n packaging

n dose

n compacts

g Other changes

n wash temperature

n

water consumptionn electricity mix

n improved sewage treatment

Energy

GWP

Acidification

Phot Smog

Nutrification

Ecotoxicity

Solid waste

Chemical load

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.81

1.2

RelativeContributio

n

1996Compact

1996Conventional

1986Conventional

1976Conventional

Comparison at Recommended dose

LCA Profile of Fabric Washing


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Strategic Studies

g Overall Business Impact Assessment

(1997)

g Water Volume Imprint (2001)

g Greenhouse Gas Emissions Assessment

(2003)

Overall Business Impact

Assessment (OBIA)

g LCA of Unilevers annual global business

g Using generic product life cycles adjusted for

production tonnagegAims:

n to estimate the scale of Unilevers

environmental footprint vs. global impacts

n to identify key environmental issues

n to improve understanding of our business

and products


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Unilevers Water Volume Imprint

Ingredients Packaging Manufacture Use

% Water Use by Life Cycle Stage

Water Scarcity in Africa

UNEP Global Environmental

Outlook Report 2000


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Example of a Regional

Assessment

Country Unilever Unilever Annual Potential

Consumer Factory Resource Scarcity% Total % Total m3/capita

Cote d'Ivoire 0.69 5265

Ghana 0.47 1607

Kenya 0.78 696

Malawi 0.16 1690

Nigeria 0.17 1815

South Africa - 1011

Uganda 0.06 1829

Zaire - 19001

Zambia 0.63 9229

Zimbabwe 0.38 1182

Sustainable Development

Initiatives

g Unilever has committed to three

sustainable development themesnSustainable Fisheries

nSustainable Agriculture

nClean Water Stewardship


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LCA and the Sustainable

Agriculture Initiative (SAI)

Detailed LCAs have been conducted on each

sustainable agriculture pilot crop

nProvides understanding of environmental

impacts across agricultural supply chains

nPlaces agricultural stage in context with

rest of supply chain

nAids in the development of sustainability

indicators

Scope of SAI and LCA

Primary Raw Material Extraction

Production of Fertiliser/Pesticide/etc

Planting/Growing/Harvesting

Factory Processes

Retailer

Consumer Use

Disposal

Distribution

SAI

LCA


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Summary

g Environmental issues are becoming

increasingly importantg Failure to address these issues can damage

brand reputation

g LCA is a useful tool to measure, understand

and communicate environmental performance

n innovation process, product design

n communication with external stakeholders

n extend life cycle thinking into strategy

development

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