Unilever have today announced they are raising the bar on ambitious climate action: committing to being 'carbon positive' by 2030. Being carbon positive will involve producing more renewable energy than needed to support their entire global operations.

Unilever are leaders in the transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas economy. They launched their Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) in 2010, and had cut their manufacturing GHG footprint by 39% per tonne of production since 2008. In 2015, they, along with 9 other B Team companies announced an aspiration to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. In the lead-up to the Paris Climate Change Summit (COP21) in December 2015 this leadership from business helped give governments, and others in industry, confidence that large businesses are committed to the zero-carbon economy.

Now, going even further to achieve carbon positive operations by 2030 they will reap many benefits for their business, including lower operational costs, greater resilience in energy supply, and a closer relationship with consumers. As CEO Paul Polman said, “Achieving a zero emissions economy is the greatest business opportunity of the century."

The first step on the road to carbon positive for Unilever will be to phase out our use of coal by the end of 2020. Read more about their plans to meet this stretch target here.