Sustainable Agriculture Program 

A new vision of Unilever is to develop new ways of doing businesses with the aim of doubling the size of our company while reducing our environmental impact. As part of doing our sustainable businesses, it is also important to educate our consumers and community to take part in saving the environment.

 

Through the Sustainable Agriculture Program, we focus on Management of Waste, Water and Green House Gases issues.

We also proactively create a changing behavioral movement within the community.

Green and Clean Program

 

In Indonesia, approximately 80% of waste (116 million tonnes per year) is currently sent to landfill. Through the Green and Clean Program, we empower the community in handling their domestic waste by doing waste segregation, recycling, composting and greening.

 

One model that we develop is our Cadre Network Model. The driving force of this model is our environmental facilitators and cadres who responsible to motivate the community in achieving our goal. The facilitators are informal leaders in the community who are trained properly by our internal team The training covers a brief about the current issues, program knowledge, interpersonal skills, SWOT analysis and so on). Their primary tasks are to identify cadres, motivate cadres to implement our program, act as partners to the community and to bridge the community to other stakeholders. 

 

The cadres are the true agents of change in the community. They directly educate the community, refresh their knowledge and motivate them thus the community remains enthusiastic. Therefore, they play a key role in ensuring the sustainability of the program. This Cadre Network Model has been proven to be very successful. By the end of 2010, the number of Unilever environmental cadres has reached 135,000, compared to 2001 which only 2 people when the program firstly started in Surabaya.

 

We also do Stakeholders Model approach, which enable us to develop mutual partnership with local government bodies, mass media, and NGO. By combining each role and strength, the Green and Clean program can create a bigger impact because the ownership of the program lies within the community.

 

In addition, we also educate the community to reduce household water consumption through three basic activities:

• Reduce water consumption by encouraging consumers to rinse washing once instead of three times.

• Reuse rinsed wastewater for other household activities, such as cleaning the floor and washing car.

 

• Effective and efficient usage of household water consumption to prevent water shortage in the near future.

 

Until 2010, the Green and Clean Program successfully covers eight big cities in Indonesia; Surabaya, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Makassar, Medan, Bandung, Banjarmasin and Balikpapan. We will soon enter Manado at the tip of Sulawesi and Denpasar.

The program benefits over two million Indonesian. The impact of this project can be seen through the waste reduction by 8 - 10% in every city where the program is implemented.

 

Moreover, we also have Litterbug Program, which is known as Waste Bank Cooperative and also Trashion (Trash and Fashion) Program. Through these two programs, we want to increase recycling rates in the community. Recycle behaviour can bring more benefits, such as less litter, less waste to be sent to disposal, less use of virgin materials, and potential savings in greenhouse gases across the lifecycle of the product.

 

The Waste Bank Cooperative and Trashion Program educate people to see waste as economically attractive, which the programs can provide workable infrastructure that allow community develop recycle culture.

 

The Waste Bank Cooperative System enables community to collect their inorganic waste and exchange it for money. Operated by local Green and Clean facilitators, the Waste Bank Cooperative becomes a social green business that brings more benefits for the cooperative members. Not only to reduce the neighbourhood waste, but also to provide funds for the environment and social activities. Based on program results, 19 Waste Bank Cooperatives in Jakarta and Surabaya can absorb 14,000 kg waste in 2010, and it is such a promising result to be leveraged in the future.

 

Further, Trashion Program is also initiated to tackle post-consumer use of plastic waste by increasing the value of plastic waste packaging and empowering Indonesian women to become waste entrepreneurs at the same time. Trashion stands for Trash and Fashion, and this program provides series of training to women in how to be Trashion entrepreneurs. During the training, the program teaches them how to collect the reusable inorganic waste, turn it to valuable product and also some marketing knowledge in order to help them sell the Trashion products. Through the Trashion Program, we empower about 730 women and able to absorb 34,200 kg waste.

 

In addition, since 2008, Unilever Indonesia has been proactively educating and raising awareness of the community through Reduce Global Warming Campaign. We conduct Green Schools and Green Office Programs every year. The main objective of the events is to create a massive popular movement, educating people about their Green House Gases (GHG)’s impact thus they can take a concrete action to reduce the impacts.

 

As part of our initiative, in 2010 we engaged with Green Radio and adopted a special forest area in Mount Gede-Pangrango, West Java. We have planted 5,000 trees which this is also part of our sustainable Tree Planting Program. We have been actively involved in the Indonesian movement for tree planting. Based on our internal data, we have successfully planted more than 15,000 trees in 2009 in order to celebrate our 75^th Anniversary.

 

We will keep expanding our Sustainable Agriculture Program throughout Indonesia in order to create a better living for our next generation.

 

Green and Clean