WEBVTT - Unilever: Making Sustainable Living Commonplace 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.320 Hey, folks, Tie here just a note before we get started. 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:08.600 The conversation in this episode was recorded before Uni Lever's 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.840 recent announcement that Alan Job will be retiring from UNI 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:22.440 Lever at the end of Okay, here's the show. Unless 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:27.040 you're a crystal clear in your mind why it makes 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:31.520 you a better business, how it will drive stronger performance, 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.199 don't start the journey because this is not CSR. This 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.360 is not some offset where you can buy a clean 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.920 conscience by donating to a charity or having a park 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.360 made next to your headquarters. Unless it sits at the 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.720 heart of your business model, driving revenue growth, taking out cost, 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:57.800 improving your employee proposition, don't do it. Welcome to calling Bullshit. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.000 The podcast about Purpose, a swashing the gap between what 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.480 companies say they stand for and what they actually do, 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.360 and what they would need to change to practice what 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.559 they preach. I'm your host, Tie Ontogue, and I've spent 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.880 over a decade helping companies define what they stand for, 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.320 their purpose and then help them to use that purpose 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:24.560 to drive transformation throughout their business. In this special episode 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:28.080 a positive case study, we're doing a deep dive into 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:32.640 Unilever with their CEO, Alan job to find out how 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.640 a global company of such vast scale, with such a 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:47.440 complex history keeps purpose front and center. You may not 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.480 even have heard of Unilever, but I bet you've grown 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.400 up using a bunch of their products. Dove Soap, Lipped 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.440 and Ta Basiline, Ben and Jerry's, to name just a few. 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.040 Many of these brands are purpose led in their own right. 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:05.400 But what if the company that owns all of these 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:09.960 household brands committed to operating under a single purpose to 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:15.079 make sustainable living commonplace. What if they committed to net 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:19.200 zero carbon and regenerative farming practices, cut their use of 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.560 virgin plastics, and ensured fair wages for everyone up and 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:28.000 down their supply chains. Imagine the profound impact that could 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:34.200 have on the future of the planet. Unilever has imagined 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.160 that impact, and as the parent company to these famous 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.760 brands and hundreds of others, they're in the unique position 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.960 to bring that dream to life. But how do they 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:49.320 pull this off? It is such an ambitious project. They 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:53.519 have hundreds of thousands of employees, three point four billion 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.760 customers around the globe, and over a century of complex 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:03.200 history to grapple with. I had the opportunity to sit 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.760 down with their CEO, Alan Joke, for an honest conversation 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:11.520 about the opportunities and challenges that Unilever faces and how 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.640 he plans to help you. Leaver continue the journey into 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:23.120 a purpose driven and ever brighter future. But first let's 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:30.880 delve into Unilever's history. The story begins in nine century Holland, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:35.280 when two butter making families, the Jurgen's and the Vandenburgh's, 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:41.480 turned their efforts toward a new product, Marjarine. Meanwhile, over 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.200 in England, William Lever was also making changes at his 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:51.160 family business, Leaver Brothers. The resulting product, Sunlight Soap, was 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.600 so popular that soon they were making four dred and 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:59.840 fifty tons of it every week. Consider progressive for his time, 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.320 William Lever saw his company as more than just a 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:08.240 profit engine. His mission was to make cleanliness commonplace and 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:13.040 bring hygiene and thereby help to the masses. He wanted 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.839 to do well by doing good, to grow his company 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.200 and simultaneously, where's the standard of living for both his 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:28.240 customers and his employees. With prosperity sharing as his guiding principle, 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.200 he built a village called Ports Sunlight, where he offered 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:37.040 affordable housing and other amenities to factory workers. It was here, 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.000 at a time when benefits were practically unheard of, that 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:46.440 he introduced innovations like sick leave, paid time off, and pensions. 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:52.760 After years of common interests and even some collaboration behind 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.040 the scenes, the Yurgans and the Vandenburg's officially combined their 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:02.400 businesses in nineteen twenty seven to create Margarine UNI. Two 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.719 years later, Lever Brothers joined the fold in what The 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:12.000 Economist called one of the biggest industrial amalgamations in European history. 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:19.400 In simpler terms, Unilever was born. Over the next half century, 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:25.000 Unilever grew a lot. They continued to acquire and launch 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.719 new companies and brands, and by the nineteen eighties they'd 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:33.400 become the world's twenty six largest corporation. But through the 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.719 eyes of someone looking back from the company engaged in 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.680 some fairly questionable activities During this period of rapid expansion. 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.920 There were some controversial marketing campaigns for skin lightning products 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.480 in the global South, and human rights violations like child labor. 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.640 Over the years, parts of Unilever had definitely lost touch 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:01.200 with ports. Sunlight's founding principle of doing well by doing good. 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.839 In the late ninety nineties, with their ideals off track 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:11.159 and growth stalled, the business was in decline and in 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:17.080 they took dramatic action and cut three quarters of their 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:23.200 nearly six hundred brands. But even after shifting focus to 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:28.040 their most successful brands, the next decade really only saw 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:32.479 some modest returns. By the time uni Lever was hit 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.880 by the two thousand and eight recession, it was clear 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.279 that the only way forward was to get a truly 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.800 fresh perspective. The most important thing is that you pursue 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:49.040 your your purpose, whatever you feel strong about. Figure out 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:51.120 where you want to make the difference. That's the first 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.600 thing you need to do. That's Paul Pullman. He had 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:59.479 steered Unilever's rival Nestle through this financial storm as their 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.840 cf OH. This caught the attention of the head haunchos 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:07.000 at Unilever, and instead of hiring from within, they decided 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:11.240 to poach Paul Pullman in two thousand and nine. He 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:17.520 became Unilever's new CEO. First order of business get everybody 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.160 on board with his ambitious vision. Because I came in 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.080 from the outside. Some people felt that the Troy and 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.960 Horse was let into the company. And I discovered very 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.840 early on that it was for me to prove that 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.000 I could be part of the team, instead of them 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.840 to prove that they could be part of my team. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.720 To do this, he knew he needed a better understanding 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.840 of Unilever's history, so he turned his attention to the 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.680 company archives and started digging. And we came to some 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.800 enormous values, and one of them is certainly doing well 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.480 by doing good. He had unearthed those same principles upon 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.280 which William Lever built Ports Sunlight. We took all that 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.880 strength and said, can we not turn that into a 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.200 business model? That is that's what they needed right now. 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:06.160 Palman implemented what he called the Sustainable Living Plan, which 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:11.880 aligned their global business strategy with the well being of employees, customers, 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:17.040 and the environment. They also started acquiring purpose led businesses 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:21.720 like Seventh Generation and Ben and Jerry's, and Paul brought 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:26.120 a new approach to Unilever's finances as well, signaling to 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:31.200 investors that if they weren't interested in sustainable, long term 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:36.199 value creation, that they should take their money elsewhere. If 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:38.480 you want to solve all these issues like climate chance 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.000 or food security, or poverty alleviation, or access to clean 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.640 drinking water or education. You cannot be victim to the 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.959 quarterly reporting. So you need different business models. And you know, 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.760 even when I became CEO, we stopped doing quarterly reporting, 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.480 We stopped giving guidance. We moved our compensation systems to 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:59.160 the long term. And make no mistake, Palman said ambitious 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.640 financials for the company as well. He declared that he 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.960 expected the company to double revenue while cutting its environmental 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:11.719 impact in half. To put that in perspective, Unilever had 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:16.400 three hundred factories across the world, four hundred brands, and 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:23.160 two point five billion customers, no small task. When Pullman 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:28.960 stepped down in January, he generated a two hundred and 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:34.839 nine percent shareholder return. He had expanded Unilever's global market share, 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:40.840 and he had become a purpose driven business legend. And 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:45.479 the story continues with our guests today. Paul Pullman's handpicked 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:50.760 successor and current Unilever CEO, Alan Joe. As you'll hear, 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:54.440 Alan is a warm, engaging leader who has worked in 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.280 almost every part of Unilever's business around the world. I 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.400 was fortunate enough to work with him as a client 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.240 when he was a senior marketer at UNI Lever and 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.880 I was an advertising creative director. We sat down to 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:11.160 discuss his approach to sustainability and how he keeps purpose 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.600 front and center while he runs a global corporation with 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:27.160 real integrity. That conversation right after the break, I am 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:32.319 extremely excited to introduce the CEO of UNI Leaver, Alan 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.680 Job Alan, welcome to calling bullshit. Hi Tai, thanks for 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:38.240 having me. It's great to be here, Nice to see 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.200 you after a while. Great to see you too. And 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.640 to start out with, I thought it would be great 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.880 to just have you tell us a little bit about 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:50.199 yourself and your background. Sure you can maybe tell from 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.120 my accent that I'm Scottish by birth, grew up in Glasgow, 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.199 went to University in Edinburgh and then joined Unilever Streets. 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.520 After university um and the first five years in London, 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.720 then fourteen years in the United States and thirteen years 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.840 in Asia. My family and wife and I have lived 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.200 for four years in Bangkok, five years in Shanghai and 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.080 four years in Singapore. Came back to the UK just 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.000 four years ago. So after twenty seven years away, I'm 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:18.960 a cultural stranger in my own country. A lot of 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.800 my a lot of my time in marketing UM, but 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:26.720 then progressed into general management and plenty of interests outside 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.160 of work. I certainly don't live to work. But when 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:34.480 you became CEO, you took over from Paul Paulman, who 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.160 is the person who put Unilever on the path to 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.080 really being a purpose led organization. What has that transition 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.760 been like for you taking the range yourself and also 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:49.680 taking over for Paul. Well, in terms of the continuity 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:54.680 of our sort of sustainability journey, it was relatively straightforward 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.400 for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's not 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.199 a ten year old thing. It's a hundred and ten 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.600 year old thing. Our various founders and Uni Leaver are 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:07.240 believed in running the business on a sustainable or purposeful way. 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.400 This guy, William Lever, who found our Leaver Brothers, one 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.920 of our antecedent companies, did all kinds of cool things. 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.520 He built a model village to house his workers when 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.800 his workers went off to fight in the First World War. 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:21.800 Not only did he hold their jobs open for them, 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.520 he paid their families their wages while they were all fighting. Um. 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.560 He kind of invented pensions. He had an elaborate system 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.360 to create libraries for those workers children, and he back 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.120 in the eighties to find the mission of the firm 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.160 as to make cleanliness commonplace and lessen the load for women. 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.560 So he was a very early on to social issues 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.959 and public health issues. Now, over the history of the company, 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:50.839 we have generally tried to do the right thing as 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.360 a business, often after exploring every other possible alternative, and 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.840 sort of Paul snift out this DNA and did an 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.080 utterly brilliant job putting it back in the center of 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.400 our business strategy and our culture. So it's something that 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.080 was very easy to carry forward. Also, frankly, I believe 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.400 strongly in in this mission as well, and maybe that's 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.440 partly why he was an enthusiastic supporter of me coming 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:15.920 into the role. But it's not been a difficult thing 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:18.160 to pick it up and run with it. Yeah, And 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.800 so it's fascinating that William Lever is kind of an 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:23.920 O G conscious capitalist. I would say it sounds like 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.319 in some ways he is. There is dark sides to 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:30.640 his history as well. So we had we had palmwell 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:36.920 plantations in the Congo where we suspect strongly that there 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.560 was a form of forced labor um. In fact, we've 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.640 commissioned an academic study with the University of Liverpool to 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:44.400 get to the bottom of that. We don't want that 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:46.600 to be a secret. If something bad went on back there, 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:48.520 then we want to know all about it. But the 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:53.959 vast majority of Leavers activities were holy positive. In fact, 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:58.000 I found a brochure recently where for the first football 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:02.680 match between Lever brother there's Port Sunlight football team versus 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:08.520 Everton FC. Every Everton one one I have to admit. Okay, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:15.680 So pivoting to Unilever today, how do you articulate Unilever's purpose. Yeah, 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.480 we do articulate the purpose of the company as being 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.800 to make sustainable living commonplace. We want to be a 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.320 force for good as a company that, through our operations 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.920 and through our brands, we help people to live more 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.560 sustainable lives. And so I think if you ask most 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:32.200 people in Unilever they would be able to see, Yeah, 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.680 the purpose of the company is to make sustainable living commonplace. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.120 It's accompanied by a very clear vision which is we 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.600 want to be the global leader and sustainable business and 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:46.040 we want to prove that it drives better financial outcomes. Yeah, 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:47.960 and I'm sure we'll get into this in a second, 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.920 but that sits right alongside our purpose, absolutely, And and 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.880 how would you characterize the dominant system that Unilever is 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.680 trying to improve upon with that purpose? Yeah, I think 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:03.840 this comes back to shareholder capitalism versus stakeholder capitalism. And 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:07.880 I would love to go to my grave having proven 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.600 two things. I'd first of all, like to prove that 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:17.840 there is no trade off between responsible, purposeful, sustainable business 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.240 and strong financial performance. Any time we get into discussion 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.600 of well, how do you trade off between the financial 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.720 performance of the company and the sustainability mission that you're on, 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:32.600 then we're doomed because ultimately the need to deliver returns 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.880 as a business will prevail. And so I want to 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.720 prove that sustainable business is a pathway to better financial performance. 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.680 And the second thing I'd love to prove is that 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.680 we have multiple stakeholders. They're all important, but I think 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.360 there's a priority of sequence. If we look after our people, 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.000 the employees of Unilever, they'll look after the business. They 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:55.720 will be the people who will make sure that the 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.120 actions we take don't have an adverse effect on the 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.800 planet or society. And in doing so they will ensure 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.760 that our shareholders are are better rewarded. So those are 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.640 the two dominant systems I'd love to have an impact on. 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:12.040 One is this stakeholder model which ends up rewarding shareholders better. 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.560 And the other is scorching this notion that there's a 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.600 trade off between sustainable business and financial performance. Yeah, I 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:20.600 love that, And I wonder if you could talk a 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.240 little bit about the compass, which is the name for 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.040 your business strategy. Can you explain what the compass is 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.520 and how it works. Sure. Look, four years ago, we 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.920 had two documents in the company. We had our business 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.520 strategy and we had our sustainability strategy, and we felt 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.680 that didn't make a lot of sense, and so we 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:46.160 rewrote our business strategy and as five pretty simple elements 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.280 to it, which is some choices that we've made around 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.400 high growth spaces we want to take our portfolio into, 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:57.080 like hygiene and skincare and prestige beauty. We've called out 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.760 the US, China and India as particularly important markets to 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.960 win in. We've called out e commerce as a must 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:07.199 win channel, and we've talked about the organization and culture 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.000 that we want to build. But the first of the 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.440 first choice is win with our brands as a force 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:17.119 for good, powered by purpose and innovation. And then dropping 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:21.959 immediately below that are three areas where we think we 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.760 can bring our commitment to sustainable living to life. One 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.560 is improving the health of the planet and others improving 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.040 people's health and well being. And the third is contributing 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.320 to a fair or more socially inclusive world. And again 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.720 underneath that, there are thirty eight specific commitments that we've 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.000 made so that the two sides of the coin, our 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:47.440 sustainability strategy and our business strategy are fully fully integrated. 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:51.400 And are all of Unilever's brands. Do all of them 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.480 have a defined purpose? Or are you somewhere along the 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.840 journey of defining all of those We're on the journey. 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:00.800 We're on a journey. Let me first will see how 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.919 we define it? Yeah, please, you'll be familiar with the 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.439 idea of continuous tracking, looking at our brands and the 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.520 competitor brands and the attributes and how we score on 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.800 those attributes in the eyes of consumers. Well, we now 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:18.040 have a standard question and for all categories in all countries, 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:22.080 where we ask, does this brand make a positive contribution 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:27.320 to society or the planet. And when in that country 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.480 a consumer scores our brands as well above average on 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.760 an index, then we say, okay, that brand in that 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:40.159 country is a purposeful brand. And at the moment, to 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.639 be precise, our turnover now comes from brands that the 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.159 consumer sets are doing something a little bit more for 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.760 society of the planet. Some of our brands are almost 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.080 entirely seen that way, like Dove or Ben and Jerry's 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.640 and others are are finding their way. You can't really 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.880 superimpose a purpose. Most of our brand's purposes we find 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:06.760 by excavating archaeology of their DNA and where they've come from. 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.720 It's very hard to sort of suddenly force fit in 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:11.800 terms of the journey that you're on. Is the goal 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.960 to be a hundred percent at some point? Yeah, I 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.800 suppose it's an ambition. It happens a little bit organically. 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:23.080 And the reason I say that is our brands that 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:26.560 score highly on purpose are growing twice as fast access 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.480 a little as close to three times as fast now 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.359 as the rest of the portfolio, and so there's a 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:37.040 very natural migration of our portfolio into that space. So, yeah, 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.160 there will be some brands that never quite get there. 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:43.119 But so long as you know, six of our brands 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:45.920 are are scoring highly on purpose and are growing three 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.960 times faster than the rest of the portfolio. Organically, the 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.520 vast majority of our portfolio will soon be seen as 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.479 more purposeful by the consumer. Right. I was listening to 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.760 an interview of you at a recent Goldman Sachs conference 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.920 where you said that we found that setting audacious goals 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.200 goals were not sure how we're going to meet is 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.560 a very effective way of driving change in our company, 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:12.280 and I just wondered if you could talk a little 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.639 bit about that, For instance, how do you set those goals? Yeah, 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:17.560 probably the easiest way to answer this is not in 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:21.800 the abstract, but with a specific challenge, which was we 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:28.120 were looking at our decarbonization of the company, and let 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:30.399 me maybe just set it up by saying, we're not 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.320 an n G O TI, We're a business. We're not 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:37.040 doing this because of the moral imperative. We're doing because 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.159 we think it makes us a stronger business with it 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:43.639 will have a more successful long term future. UM and 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:48.040 there are dimensions of the business case around growth. I've 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.360 touched on. Some of our brands are growing faster when 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.879 they embrace sustainability. There's a dimension around cost. We actually 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.720 think it should take cost out the organization. Um it 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.760 lures risk. A planet underwater or on fire is not 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.600 a place to be a consumer products company. But on 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.119 this point of cost, there will be a price on carbon. 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:08.520 So today carbon is treated as a free good and 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.359 there's very few places where there's attacks or a price 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.000 on carbon of any sort. There absolutely will be so 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.560 both because we care about climate change, but also because 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.760 it makes good economic sense to reduce the carbon footprint 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.240 of Unilever. We wanted to lay out our plan to 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:28.560 decarbonized Unilever, and I suggested to our board that we 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.520 put it to shareholder vote. And this caused a few 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:34.800 sweaty moments in in our board meeting because we were 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:36.800 worried that some of our shareholders might say, what, you're 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:38.760 going far too far, and others might say, well, you're 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.919 not going far enough. But we wrote this carbon Transition 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.359 Action Plan and we put it to a shareholder vote 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.640 last May at our a g M. And now, coming 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.439 to actually answer your question, it has some big hairy 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:54.640 goals in there, one of which is to be net 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:59.760 zero as a company by twenty nine. Now we've got 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.600 milestones along the way. So for instance, we want reduction 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.439 and scope one and two carbon by we want a 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:12.919 seventy percent reduction in all emissions by but that endpoint 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.960 target and net zero by nine, we have no clue 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:19.159 how we're going to get there, and it will require innovation. 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.480 It will probably require reshaping of our portfolio. It will 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.160 require us to take as much carbon as we can 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:29.280 out of our operations. It will require us to advocate 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:34.399 for a decarbonization of electrical grids around the world, because 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:37.960 the biggest carbon footprint that you on ever has is 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:41.520 the energy that's used in heating the water that's used 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.200 to wash your skin, wash your hair, wash your clothes, 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:48.359 cook your food. That's our single biggest footprints. So and 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:50.359 only when we've done all that, we will probably need 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:52.239 to do a little bit of offsetting at the end. 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:55.080 So that would be an example of where we've set 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:56.880 a goal with no idea how we're going to get there. 0:22:57.240 --> 0:22:59.119 But I can tell you most people in the company 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:00.840 of a feeling that it's the right thing to do, 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:03.119 and that by setting the goog will start taking the 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:06.040 actions that we need to take. I love that the 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.879 thing that I think that's really interesting about that is 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:15.679 that in traditional shareholder capitalism, companies have been conditioned to 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:19.080 externalize cost. It would be rare of a company, i think, 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:23.399 to actually think about the carbon footprint of heating the 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:25.879 water that people use to bathe as a part of 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:29.719 your responsibility. It's really inspiring that you think about it 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:33.240 that way. Well, two footnotes. We were the first company 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:36.239 in the world to put our carbon transition plan, our 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:40.679 climate Transition Action Plan to shareholder vote. Many have now followed, 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:43.960 so we're delighted to see many people now writing their plans. 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:46.639 And the second footnote is that it squeaked through the 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:52.760 shareholder vote with six shareholder support. And actually that's a 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:56.000 great statistics to understand that the capital markets are starting 0:23:56.040 --> 0:24:01.720 to care about these types of matters. Absolutely, that's really positive. 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:06.520 You've already made tremendous strides as a company over the 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:11.199 last decade, and as you look at the challenges that 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:13.720 lie ahead, the things that you want to take on. 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:18.639 What are those challenges. Well, there are lots of problems 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:22.719 in the world right now, but our view is that 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:26.280 there are three that are bigger than the rest. The 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:30.800 first is the climate emergency that the impact of climate 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:36.080 change on everything is hard to overstate. It's going to 0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:38.760 be a major major problem for the world. Even if 0:24:38.800 --> 0:24:41.439 we do the best possible job that we can and 0:24:41.520 --> 0:24:43.720 managed to get to one and a half degrees above 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:46.720 pre industrial levels, it's still going to cause a major 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:49.200 failure of the world food system. It's going to cause 0:24:49.240 --> 0:24:52.399 massive migration from hard hit areas, so we better be 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:55.280 dealing with that. The second, and it's related as a 0:24:55.359 --> 0:24:59.480 degradation and loss of nature combination of climate change and 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:02.919 us chopping down large swathes of for us putting in 0:25:03.000 --> 0:25:07.760 monocrop agriculture, smashing by diversity. And then the third is 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:13.920 the dramatic increases in inequality that we're seeing country by country. Interestingly, 0:25:14.680 --> 0:25:17.320 because China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out 0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:21.040 of poverty, net inequality in the world is not going up, 0:25:21.280 --> 0:25:22.880 but if you look at it on a country by 0:25:22.880 --> 0:25:27.160 country level, the tremendous situation inequality and it's getting worse. 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:31.000 And those are three of the things that we hope 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:34.440