The milestone was achieved while growing sales by 26% from €40.5bn in 2008 to €51.3bn in 2012.
John Maguire, Unilever’s group manufacturing sustainability director, said: “CO2 emissions and climate change continue to present businesses with significant challenges, but they also offer opportunities. Our primary focus is to reduce overall energy use by improving the eco-efficiency of everything we do in our factories, offices and other operations. We leverage our global scale by selecting ideas that have the best financial and eco-efficiency payback and then implement them globally.
“We are also committed to ensuring as much as possible of the energy we use comes from sustainable sources. For example, 100% of the electrical energy we buy in Europe and North America comes from renewable sources.
“Eco-efficiency isn’t just about reducing the environmental footprint. It also makes good business sense. Since 2008, our eco-efficiency programmes have avoided more than €300m of costs: almost €100m in energy, €186m in materials, €17m in water, and €10m in waste disposal. The benefits are very clear in a world where energy prices are increasing.”
Source: Unilever
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