USLP’s difference to everyday lives

Unilever has launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) in Vietnam which the company believes will allow it to further its mission to make Vietnamese people’s lives better. JV Raman, chairman of Unilever in Vietnam, tells VIR’s Kieu Linh why.

Could you please tell us what the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) is about and what is the plan’s purpose?

When we launched the strategic intent, we committed to developing new ways of doing business that will allow us to double the size of our company, while reducing our environmental impacts. The USLP is the roadmap to how Unilever will deliver its commitment as I mentioned above. In other words, the USLP is Unilever’s roadmap for sustainably growing our company and brands.

As our CEO Paul Polman explained at the launch of the USLP, Unilever has ambitious plans to grow the company. But growth at any price is not viable. We have to develop new ways of doing business which will ensure that our growth does not come at the expense of the world’s diminishing natural resources.

The USLP is a ground-breaking company-wide action plan, spanning our entire supply chain and involving every part of our company. The global plan aims to result in three significant outcomes by 2020. First, we will double our growth whilst halving the environmental impact of our products. Second, we will source 100 per cent of our agricultural raw materials sustainably. Lastly, we will help more than one billion people take action to improve their health and well-being.

What commitments does Unilever in Vietnam make under the USLP?

We have strong ambitions for the USLP in Vietnam for 2012-2020, which we believe will allow us to further our mission to make Vietnamese lives better. Specifically, for improving health, hygiene and well-being, we aim to make more than 20 million Vietnamese lives better by improving their health, hygiene standards and well-being. Such programmes include P/S Protects Vietnamese Smiles, improving community health and hygiene through hand-washing, providing clean toilets for school children, educating women on health, hygiene and nutrition, improving children’s physical development. For reducing environmental impacts, we aim to halve the environmental impact of our business activities and product consumption through our commitment and investment in product innovations, production processes and technology. For enhancing livelihoods, we aim to enhance the livelihoods of millions of Vietnamese as we grow our business, through our sustainable tea sourcing project and our micro financing programme which aims to create job opportunities and generate better income for disadvantaged women.

How will you deliver these ambitious commitments?

To achieve our USLP ambition in Vietnam, we need to work with the government, our business and NGO partners, our customers because we simply cannot do it alone. We are very proud of our long track record of acting responsibly Vietnam and we strongly believe that this philosophy of “Doing Good for Doing Well” and our focus on actions and meaningful initiatives in this regard have enabled us to have a strong foundation for further actions and commitments, making us succeed in achieving our ambition to the USLP in Vietnam.

As you know, starting in 2006, the strategic partnerships between Unilever in Vietnam and relevant government agencies have focused on health and hygiene (with the Ministry of Health (MoH), education and children development (with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and women empowerment (with the Vietnam Women Union (VWU). With total commitments of over VND70 billion per year to these key CSR initiatives, Unilever in Vietnam - through its Unilever Vietnam Foundation and its brands - and its government partners have worked to benefited millions of households in Vietnam, especially in rural and disadvantaged areas.

Today, we are very pleased to review and expand our partnerships with the MoH, MoET and VWU for the second phase, from 2012 to 2016. These long-term strategic partnerships illustrate our strong commitment and desire to work with the government, with our business and NGO partners, with our customers and our people to achieve our USLP ambition in Vietnam. We are very excited about the USLP journey that we start today in Vietnam for the common goal of making Vietnamese lives better.

What makes you believe the environmental impact reduction ambition can be achieved?

During the last 16 years, Unilever in Vietnam has always taken great efforts not only to succeed in its business, but also to become a good corporate citizen towards the environment. This is a comprehensive effort through our company’s daily operations, at our factory, at our workplace and with our partners and suppliers.