Working with others

Water Footprint Network

To increase our expertise in measuring water impacts, we co-founded the Water Footprint Network (WFN) in December 2008 with organisations from the private sector, the International Finance Corporation, WBCSD, WWF and UNESCO. The Network aims to develop a measurement framework that assesses the total water used across the lifecycle of a product and the impact of that water use.

Unilever conducted two pilot studies, on tea and margarine, to help to develop this methodology.

Our results show that over 99% of the water footprint of a 500 g tub of Rama margarine is from agricultural ingredients, notably the irrigation of sunflowers. The figures are similar for tea.

Our aim is to include agricultural water in our assessment of water impacts. Much work remains to be done, and we will continue to work with the WFN to help refine its methodology.

CEO Water Mandate

We also remain committed to the CEO Water Mandate which brings together companies, leading campaigning organisations, governments and the United Nations. The group was established to stimulate collective action by setting industry-wide measures for accounting for water and to encourage good business behaviour in managing water. In May 2008, the chief executive officers of the 19 endorsing companies of the CEO Water Mandate, including Unilever, signed a letter to the G8 summit, urging government leaders to take action on water.

We also contributed to a review of corporate water accounting tools and methods during 2010, continuing our efforts towards harmonised water reporting.

Water quality initiatives

In 2002, Unilever South Africa funded the establishment of the Unilever Centre for Environmental Water Quality within the Institute for Water Research at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.

The objective of the Centre is to contribute to the understanding and sustainable management of water resources in Southern Africa. This is pursued through partnerships with industry, local and national government, water resource management forums, communities and other academic institutions. The Centre has produced numerous research publications focusing on exploring the ecological, chemical and toxicological effects of pollutants on aquatic ecosystems and this knowledge is used to guide national policy through the National Water Advisory Council.

In collaboration with industry, catchment partners and local government, academic research is applied to real situations within the context of Integrated Water Resource Management. An example of this is the Boksburg Lake Project, a stakeholder-driven process aiming to restore the Boksburg lake back to a valuable ecological site and public amenity. Through Unilever's influence, the local municipality has agreed to dredge the Lake and steps are in place to complete this by the end of 2011.

Unilever, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa have teamed up to investigate the possible uses of 'greywater' (water that has been used for washing dishes or laundry).

Greywater is a potential source of water and nutrients which could aid plant growth, but it also poses a challenge because of its salt content. The project is evaluating the suitability of greywater for growing vegetables in South Africa. Initial results are encouraging and show that laundry greywater does not inhibit plant growth.

CDP Water Disclosure

Unilever participated in the inaugural CDP Water Disclosure 2010. A new initiative from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), it aims to improve and standardise corporate water measurement and reporting and raise awareness of water related issues. The questionnaire was sent to 302 of the world’s largest companies based on their water use or exposure to water risks. It is backed by 137 institutional investors representing $16 trillion in assets.

Unilever is included in the Retail, Consumer Discretionary & Consumer Staples sector. Unlike the Carbon Disclosure Project, companies are not ranked or scored on either the quality of their disclosures or on their performance in water management. Individual company responses are available to read on the CDP Water Disclosure website.

Water use & hygiene

We have been involved with Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) since it was established in 2004. WSUP is a partnership between the private, public and civil society sectors and seeks to demonstrate new approaches to meeting the water, sanitation and hygiene needs of low-income consumers in urban areas, particularly in developing and emerging markets.

We are now embarking on a pilot project with WSUP to add a hygiene education element to their existing water and sanitation programmes, to see if this would boost their overall effectiveness. See Health & hygiene for more information.

To read more on how we are promoting better hygiene through handwashing initiatives, see Promoting handwashing.

External recognition

Unilever's disclosure of its water use globally has put it at the top of the Foods sector in the report 'Murky Waters? Corporate Reporting on Water Risk: A Benchmarking Study of 100 Companies'. Published in February 2010, the report was a collaboration between Ceres (a US coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organisations), financial services company UBS and financial information provider, Bloomberg. Unilever also ranked in the top ten companies overall in the study.

Unilever was named industry leader from a group of 15 major food and beverage companies in a 2008 analysis of companies' approach to water consumption. The study was carried out by the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility, a membership organisation representing Christian faith groups, ethical investors and NGOs. The analysis was based on companies' policies on reducing water consumption, mechanisms in place to implement their policies, actual performance and public reporting. Unilever achieved the highest score based on our performance in all these areas.