Unilever Project Sunlight
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projectSunlig t PROJECT SUNLIGHT: INSPIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING INTRODUCTION MAKING SUSTAINABLE LIVING UNDERSTOOD, EASY, DESIRABLE, REWARDING AND A HABIT In 2011 we published for the first time our own showing instead that it can in fact generate model for effective behaviour change called significant savings in household energy and Unilever’s Five Levers for Change1. It is based on food bills. CONTENTS what we have learned over the years devising As everyone knows, one way to reduce behaviour change programmes to change environmental impacts or improve health hygiene habits, working with brands such as and wellbeing on a mass scale is through Lifebuoy soap and Signal toothpaste. large numbers of people taking small actions FACING THE WORLD’S It also draws on decades of research and together which add up to make a big difference. CHALLENGES 3 insights by behaviour change experts inside and This idea and the phrase ‘small actions, big outside the company. We decided to share this difference’ have been part of our vision for practical tool because we believe its principles some years. can equally be applied to sustainable behaviour We also know that such is the connectivity PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO change and in the hope that, by making them between individuals which the internet and SUSTAINABILITY 5 available to a wider audience, this approach social networks provide, that for any activity could be used by others. to stand any chance of becoming a mass Since then we have tried out a number of movement of people, it has to be social approaches to inspiring sustainable living with by design. CHILDREN AS AGENTS our employees and consumers to learn more That’s why we believe there has never been a OF CHANGE about how people can be encouraged to make better time to inspire people to create a better 7 sustainable choices that are understandable, future. The challenge for us has been how to easy, aspirational, rewarding and habitual. inspire the mainstream majority of people to These range from small studies such as the want to live more sustainably, not just active PROJECT SUNLIGHT Unilever Sustain Ability Challenge2 involving consumers who are already persuaded of the 12 households in the UK in 2012-13, to more need to do so, and turn aspiration into action. 8 substantial research in the home using logger This booklet sets out the context, research and technology to ascertain actual behaviour as thinking behind Unilever’s new approach to opposed to reported behaviour in areas such as this challenge, Project Sunlight, and the next handwashing and brushing teeth. The Sustain steps we are taking on our journey towards our Ability Challenge successfully overturned ambitious goal of making sustainable living perceptions that sustainable living costs more, commonplace. INSPIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING projectSunlight 22 FACING THE WORLD’SCHALLENGES THE NEED FOR ACTION HAS NEVER BEEN GREATER. By 2030, the world’s BUSINESS AND THE PUBLIC HAVE TO RISE TO THE population will rise CHALLENGE from 7 billion to over 8 billion 7 BILLION 8 SOURCE UN; WORLD BANK BILLION The world faces enormous challenges. world’s population will rise to over 6 While significant progress has been made 8 billion , demand for food will increase demand for food will 7 8 in reducing poverty and improving health, by 50% , for energy by 50% and for increase by 50% 9 many of the Millennium Development water by 30% . SOURCE: FAO Goals (MDGs) are not on track to be met by FOOD Governments have so far failed to 50% 2015. Today, nearly 800 million people do introduce global agreements to address not have access to safe drinking water, these growing resource demands or curb 6.9 million children under 5 die each year climate change. The Doha Development from preventable disease, 2 million of them Agenda, which has the potential to take an from diarrhoea and pneumonia, and 870 estimated 144 million out of poverty10, has 3 million still go to bed hungry . still not been concluded 12 years after the demand for energy The world is consuming natural resources World Trade Organisation began the Doha by 50% at the rate of 1.5 planets and, unless we Round in 2001. SOURCE: IEA ENERGY change course, by 2030 even two planets The UN Framework Convention on Climate 50% 4 would not be enough . The effects of Change has yet to sign a comprehensive climate change are becoming daily more global agreement after 17 years of evident as countries around the world discussion with the prospect of a legally experience extreme weather events, from binding agreement pushed back to 2015 severe droughts in the United States, and not due to take effect until 2020. Australia and Africa to extraordinary and for water by 30% floods in China, Brazil, Pakistan and Meanwhile carbon dioxide emissions from SOURCE: IFPRI 11 Central Europe, to tornadoes and typhoons fossil fuels reached record levels in 2012 and, for the first time in human history, in the United States and the Philippines. WATER the concentration of climate-warming 30% Our planet is facing what has been carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed 5 described as a ‘perf ect storm’ of increased the milestone level of 400 parts per demand and resource scarcity. By 2030, the million (ppm)12. If people continue to emit INSPIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING projectSunlight 33 greenhouse gases at current rates, the 2⁰C together to take a proactive approach to global warming threshold could be breached addressing these issues over the coming within 30 years. The resulting rise in sea decades. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY SUSTAINABLE LIVING? levels, heatwaves, droughts and extreme We are not alone in having this optimistic weather conditions would create food view of the future. It is also the view Sustainable living means living well and living shortages, mass economic migration and of, among others, the World Business within the means of the planet. By ‘living well’ we 13 put millions of lives at risk . Council for Sustainable Development, are describing a standard of living where people whose Vision 2050: The New Agenda for have access to and the ability to afford education, The urgency of now Business14, a collaborative effort by 29 healthcare, mobility, the basics of food, water, energy and shelter, and consumer goods. By ‘living The need for action has never been greater. leading international companies, envisages within the means of the planet’ we mean living Governments alone cannot provide solutions, a future in which sustainable living becomes in such a way that this standard of living can be so business and the public also have to rise mainstream after 2020 and before 2050 sustained with the available natural resources and to the challenge. It is also a view shared by Jonathon Porritt, without further harm to biodiversity, climate and the legendary environmental campaigner, As a global company whose products are other eco-systems. used over two billion times a day in over half whose book The World We Made imagines a the households on the planet, we have a sustainable world in 2050 and the journey responsibility to take a leadership role in co- that was taken to achieve it. creating a world where everyone can live well To get there businesses like ours not only and within the natural limits of our planet – have to make their own operating practices what we call sustainable living. sustainable, but also have to stimulate shifts For some people the idea that it is possible in consumption, and help to shape public for 9 billion people to live sustainably by policy and market transformation. 2050 – what WWF describes as ‘one planet It also means people modifying their living’ – may seem utopian, considering how consumption behaviour. Done at scale, this far removed it appears from today’s realities has the potential to make a big difference and the social, economic and environmental to social and environmental impacts. For challenges the world faces. example, in the UK, an estimated 75% of However, we believe that achieving this greenhouse gas emissions are influenced vision is possible, providing leaders from directly or indirectly by consumers, according governments, business, civil society and to the Sustainable Consumption Institute at 15 ordinary members of the public work the University of Manchester. INSPIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING projectSunlight 44 PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO SUSTAINABILITY Today, most consumers are aware of and The majority of people (around two-thirds in MAKING SUSTAINABLE LIVING concerned about sustainability. This holds true markets such as the US) can be described as COMMONPLACE BYTURNING GOOD all over the world, even if specific local concerns ‘middle greens’ – neither ‘active greens’, nor INTENTIONS INTO POSITIVE ACTION vary. For example, 95% of European consumers ‘green rejectors’.19 say protecting the environment is an important So the challenge facing Unilever in considering 16 personal concern. how best to make sustainable living commonplace However, as a society, we’ve been much less is how can we shrink this ‘mainstream middle’ and successful in converting concern into action. expand the ranks of the conscious consumer? How Around two-thirds say they want to make the world can we turn good intentions into positive action? a better place, a percentage that has changed little To make something mainstream means creating 17 over the past five years. Over the same period, the a new social norm. Given the urgency of climate number of people who can be described as ‘active change, we have to consider not just how we help greens’ or ‘conscientious consumers’ has also people take small incremental steps towards remained about the same. living more sustainably but how can we achieve There are even signs that public concern about the a paradigm shift in people’s approach to life environment is waning, particularly as economic such that a sustainable lifestyle is seen to be pressures dominate daily life for many consumers.