Growth Should Not be at the Expense of People and the Planet: Khalil Yassine

Unilever is a company with a brand and people with a clear purpose. It aims at making sustainable living commonplace. Unilever believes that business growth should not be at the expense of people and the planet, said Khalil Yassine, Head of Unilever, Arabia.

To achieve this Unilever is working towards creating a sustainable future with its operations, brands and people.

"Starting with the operations, we are embedding sustainability in every part of our business. Unilever has set environmental targets for waste, water and greenhouse gas, for all our factories across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)," said Mr Yassine, in a conversation with Sustainability Middle East (SME).

As a result, Unilever was the first company in the region to achieve zero waste to landfill in 2014. With the same context the company's Dubai factory has reduced CO2 emissions from energy by 96% per tonne of production and cut energy consumption by 65%.

"We are a leading industry group in UAE and Saudi Arabia, working towards achieving sustainable solutions for packaging waste by collaborating with Governments and NGOs," said Mr Yassine.

He added: "When it comes to people we are driving sustainability by actively engaging with all stakeholders. We are also proud to be among the first signatories of the UAE Alliance for Climate Action, the flagship project for COP28.

"This is in line with our commitment to address climate change by reaching net zero emissions in our operations by 2030 and across our value chain by 2039."

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