Unilever Leads in New Industry Rating

Unilever is identified as the sustainability leader amongst the 10 largest food and beverage companies in a new "Tomorrow's Value Rating" of the sector. The rating from the international sustainability consultancy Two Tomorrows uses publicly-available information to assess how well companies manage the social and environmental impacts of the global food chain.

Unilever's comprehensive sustainability strategy is based on stakeholder feedback, governed by the company's senior leaders and underpinned by solid management systems. Its performance on important variables such as carbon emissions and water usage has shown marked improvements over the years. It has also shown leadership by co-founding initiatives such as the Marine Stewardship Council and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. It was an early supporter of fair trade and started rolling out nutritional labeling practices earlier than most.

The following companies round out the top 10 list:
2. Nestle
3. Danone
4. PepsiCo
5. Coca-Cola
6. AB-InBev
7. Kraft
8. Heineken
9. Tyson
10. Kirin Holdings

Additional key findings of the Tomorrow's Value Rating of the food and beverage sector include:

-- The industry does better than other sectors in addressing water as a key issue alongside climate change
-- Supply chain sustainability continues to present the industry's biggest challenges
-- Nestle has the sector's leading supply chain management approach. It purchases most of its dairy, coffee and cocoa direct from more than 660,000 suppliers, resulting in financial benefits, better traceability and long-term security of supplies
-- Danone has achieved first successes with an innovative new business model, a factory for nutrient-fortified yogurt in Bangladesh, supplied and distributed through local communities
-- While food labeling is now mandatory in most mature economies, the expansion into emerging markets means this remains a critical issue. Leading companies are responding with global labeling standards for their products
-- After some prominent water-related conflicts with communities, operational water usage has become a priority issue for beverage companies
-- The sector stays largely silent on the issue of genetically-modified organisms

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