Unilever: to halt fossil fuel use in cleaning products

(CercleFinance.com) - Consumer-goods giant Unilever announced on Wednesday that it plans to invest one billion euros to eliminate fossil fuels in its cleaning products by 2030.


The owner of Omo (Persil) laundry detergent, Cif household cleanser and Domestos toilet cleaner said it wants to move away from fossil fuel derived chemicals by financing biotechnology research, CO2 and waste utilisation, and low carbon chemistry.

This investment will also be used to create biodegradable and water-efficient product formulations, so as to halve the use of virgin plastic by 2025.

Unilever said the chemicals in its cleaning and laundry products constitute the greatest proportion of their carbon footprint (46%) across their lifecycle.

By transitioning away from fossil fuel-derived chemicals, Unilever expects to cut the carbon footprint of its product formulations by up to 20%.

The Anglo-Dutch company said the one billion euro investment complements its one billion euro fund focused on creating affordable cleaning and laundry products with a significantly lower environmental impact.

On Tuesday Unilever announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Liquid I.V., a US-based health-science nutrition and wellness firm that makes electrolyte drink mixes helping people feel and sleep better.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Copyright (c) 2020 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.