Unilever far from bog standard over toilet provision pledge

Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever has pledged to to help 25m people gain improved access to toilets by 2020.
This commitment is part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan – Unilever’s blueprint for sustainable growth.

According to the company, an estimated 2.5bn people – over one third of the world’s population – live without access to adequate sanitation. Of these, over one billion continue to defecate in the open. This has a serious impact on people’s health, nutrition, education, on gender equality and sustainable economic development. 

“Business can and must be part of the solution in addressing global challenges that affect us all,” said Unilever ceo, Paul Polman. “That’s why we introduced the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to positively contribute to the societies where we operate. With our portfolio of health and hygiene brands, our understanding of consumers’ needs and our global reach, we are uniquely placed to help improve people’s lives.”

This target will be delivered by Unilever’s toilet cleaning brand, Domestos and the Unilever Foundation, by scaling up existing partnership programmes.

To deliver this commitment, Domestos and the Unilever Foundation are working with UNICEF to change sanitation behaviours.

Domestos is also partnering with social enterprise eKutir, to deliver market-based models that enable entrepreneurs to set up local sanitation businesses in rural areas, and running school programmes with locally-based NGOs, which improve school facilities and educate the next generation of children on the importance of sanitation and hygiene.

Picture credit: © Nomadsoul1 | Dreamstime.com - Toilet Bowl Photo