Carbon emissions mapping at Unilever Europe : implementing a structural method to map and reduce carbon emissions

In 2007, the CEO of Unilever committed to a 25% reduction of CO2 emissions from global manufacturing operations in 2012. Unilever Europe Logistics has aligned to this target. To achieve this objective, the management of European logistics department decided to build a carbon emission estimation methodology to quantify the CO2 emissions, emitted from the sourcing units to the distribution centers. In cooperation with the Technical University of Eindhoven, a new methodology was developed that allows transport-buying companies to estimate the CO2 emissions in transport (Özsalih, 2009). A major advantage of developing your own carbon tool is that you can ensure that the tool fits with current working procedures, routines, information streams and data availability. This best practice describes how Unilever Europe managed this. The developed methodology supports Unilever Europe in achieving their ambitious sustainability targets.