The world continues to face many challenges in 2023. The global economy begins to show signs of recession. Consumers are adjusting their spending to prepare for a tough period ahead. They maximize the value of everything and spend money wisely, but still give more attention to businesses that make a positive impact on people, society and the environment by increasingly aware consumers. more clearly on the role of sustainable development.
Consumer trends and business responses
According to the founder of GROW Media Company in Forbes Magazine, sustainability is one of the five outstanding trends of consumer trends in 2023*. Consumer awareness is increasing day by day. One report found that 82% of shoppers, mostly Gen-Z, expect brands to practice sustainable practices and put people first.
Catching up with this consumer trend, Unilever Vietnam has been making efforts to develop and bring products with good quality and price to consumers through many distribution channels such as retail stores, sales channels. digital direct-to-consumers, e-commerce, omni-channel…
| Business sharing regarding circular economy. |
Unilever Vietnam also promotes product innovation to create a more positive impact on people and the planet, as well as promoting a series of sustainability programs in business operations in Vietnam, with participation of brands pursuing sustainability goals. These programs focus on managing plastic waste, reducing carbon emissions, improving the health and well-being of all, and empowering women for an inclusive society.
For example, Unilever Vietnam’s home care products business is seeing strong growth as the Green Future program is launched. Sunlight, OMO and Comfort with more eco-friendly formulations, gentler on skin and using more sustainable packaging; Personal care products like Lifebuoy or P/S are helping to improve people’s hygiene standards, through hand washing and oral care habits…
According to Unilever Vietnam Communications and External Affairs Director, Unilever strongly believes that a sustainable business model can drive outstanding business performance. Consumers tend to favor and buy products from brands that make a positive impact on society and the environment.
To materialize its sustainability commitments, Unilever Vietnam sets ambitious goals and bold initiatives to realize its corporate vision.
The top priority is to tackle pollution from plastic waste through promoting 75% recyclable bottle packaging, 87% reduction in virgin plastic through direct reduction and use of recycled plastics (PCR). ), and collect and process more than is used for the packaging of marketed products.
The Circular Economy model will be the main driving force for the company to achieve its goal of bringing plastic into the cycle. A practical program on waste separation at source, education and communication to change behavior in the community on a larger scale plays an important role in plastic waste collection and recycling to promote the use of recycled plastic PCR in packaging production of Unilever Vietnam. This model requires cooperation from all sectors in the business and like-minded partners.
Next, Unilever Vietnam’s biggest ambition is to build a zero-emission value chain by 2039. Therefore, in 2023, the business will accompany and support partners in capacity building and implementation. activities that bring carbon emissions to “zero” for the common goal of building a zero-emission value chain.
The tree planting program initiated by the OMO brand also helps absorb CO2 for the Earth. Each year, OMO will plant 200,000 trees towards the goal of 1 million trees by 2025.
Finally, Unilever and its brands, working closely with Government partners, private sector partners, international organizations and NGOs, are committed to addressing health, hygiene and safety issues. birth for all and empowering women to promote gender equality in society.
Through strategic programs aimed at good purposes such as “Wash your hands with soap for a healthier Vietnam”, “Green – Clean – Healthy School”, “Protect Vietnam’s smile”, “The clean toilet program”, implemented by pioneering brands in promoting sustainable living such as Lifebuoy, Vim, P/S…, Unilever Vietnam is committed to comprehensively improving health and conditions sanitation for at least one million Vietnamese people, especially children, in schools across the country.
At the same time, Sunlight’s women’s empowerment program “Vietnamese women confidently do business” will continue its successful journey and meaningful mission, providing business start-up training opportunities for at least 100,000 women. The program will help women have better knowledge, more sustainable livelihoods and can become the driving force for sustainable development of the whole society.
“In the long term, a sustainable business model can help businesses save costs, typically by cutting energy costs. Businesses pursuing a sustainable development model will create motivation and confidence for businesses. employees, retain and attract talent, especially talented young people who want to develop their careers at companies with good vision and purpose where they can make an impact positively to the environment, society and people”, shared a representative of Unilever Vietnam.
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Oppotunity and challenge
In Vietnam, the Government is seriously committed to promoting sustainable development. This is reflected in the strong commitment of the Prime Minister to bring net emissions to “zero” at COP26. This is the motivation for businesses to invest more in solutions to reduce carbon emissions.
However, there is still much work that needs to be done by the public and private sectors to realize the sustainable development goals.
One of the biggest challenges is plastic – we need to build a plastic cycle. This is not only a matter of people’s awareness in sorting and collecting plastic waste, but also a problem of the uniformity and completeness of the nationwide waste collection and classification system.
In the program of collecting and classifying waste for the community, Unilever Vietnam listened to participants share that they were aware of the role of waste segregation at source. However, although they did sort the waste at home, all the trash was collected in a single bin followingwards – this was mainly due to the inconsistent development of the waste management system. plastic.
Therefore, the challenges that need to be addressed are not only raising people’s awareness and turning that awareness into action, but also establishing a system of waste segregation at source and collection of plastic waste to put plastic back into the economy and create a plastic cycle.
This requires cooperation from the Government, organizations and businesses to build a future free of plastic waste into the environment. The Public-Private Partnership model initiated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Unilever Vietnam is one of the pioneering initiatives that laid the foundation and facilitated the realization of this vision.