Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company. Headquartered in the UK, the company sells products that include food, energy drink, ice cream, tea, cleaning agents, beauty products, personal care products, and many in between.
The company is considered one of the oldest multinational companies, with it selling its various products in around 190 countries.
Having that massive reach and influence, the company unveiled a €1 billion ($1.13 billion) fund that it wants to spend over the next ten years to protect the environment:
And with that initiative, Unilever wants the blockchain technology to have an integral role.
On the announcement, Unilever said that:
Alan Jope, Unilever CEO, said that:
"Climate change, nature degradation, biodiversity decline, water scarcity – all these issues are interconnected, and we must address them all simultaneously."
"In doing so, we must also recognise that the climate crisis is not only an environmental emergency; it also has a terrible impact on lives and livelihoods. We, therefore, have a responsibility to help tackle the crisis: as a business, and through direct action by our brands."
"The planet is in crisis, and we must take decisive action to stop the damage, and to restore its health."
The blockchain technology offers transparency and traceability. And among others, these are the best-known advantages of the technology, where adopters can really leverage peer-to-peer to secure information that cannot be altered in any way.
As for Unilever, the giant is not new to blockchain.
Back in 2019, it was said that the technology has helped consumer goods giant Unilever save money in ad reconciliation, said Luis Di Como, the firm’s Vice President for Global Media.
The system reportedly allowed for more efficient ad reconciliation in a “process by which advertisers ensure contracted agreements are actually delivered.”
To make this project, Unilever has been collaborating with computing giant IBM for more than a year.
Since then, it was estimated that Unilever saved two to three percent of its money using the blockchain platform.
Among the projects the company is having, Unilever has what it calls the 'Sustainable Living', in which among the goals, is to halve the "the environmental footprint of our products."
In one of the cases, Unilever's subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s, for example, has been running a blockchain-based platform that allows its clients to contribute to offsetting the carbon footprint.
