VIDEO: Designing out waste holds ultimate value for Unilever

A revealing insight into how Unilever is targeting waste reduction as a value creation model across its manufacturing operations is offered in the latest of our Resource Revolution leader interview series.


The company’s group environmental engineering manager Tony Dunnage spoke of how the company is actively driving waste up the hierarchy as part of its wider Sustainable Living Plan ambitions.

“By generating less waste at source, that’s really where we see the value … the pull on natural resources reduces because we are generating more from less,” he said.

One focus area here for Unilever is designing waste out during the production process by taking best practice from some of its exemplar factories and transferring the learning across to other sites.

“[We are copying] over smart engineering design – not just sharing the knowledge but actually transferring the knowledge,” Dunnage explained.

Other measures include incentivising suppliers to build waste reduction into their operations – according to Dunnage, this is a key area where waste management companies can add real value to their client base.

Sponsored by FCC Environment, the interview series comprises eight video interviews with stakeholders from all points in the circular economy. The seventh leader interview will follow next week, featuring the manufacturer perspective with Unilever.

View previous interviews:

The SME Leader perspective – Commercial Group

The Waste Contractor perspective – FCC Environment

The Designer perspective – RSA The Great Recovery Project

The Local Authority perspective – Somerset Waste Partnership

The Brand Leader perspective – Coca Cola Enterprises

The Retail perspective – John Lewis Partnership

The Thought Leader perspective – Peter Jones

The interviews incorporate learning from our recently-published White Paper ‘Closing the loop: risk or reward’. You can download your copy here.

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