Stories

Unilever uses ITC’s Standards Map to enhance transparency in sustainable agricultural practices

25 June 2014
ITC News
Standards Map to be used as a benchmarking tool

Unilever is using the International Trade Centre’s Standards Map as a benchmark to increase transparency of international quality standards of production. This is in line with the company’s corporate social responsibility ethics of sustainable sourcing of renewable raw materials through its Sustainable Agriculture Code. This Code promotes self-assessment of Unilever’s suppliers of agricultural ingredients and products as a measurement of quality and safety.

Until recently, Unilever was manually comparing their Code to various other standards and best practices in agriculture in a cumbersome process that is prone to the evolving nature of sustainability standards introduced by different countries and authorities for various categories of certification for products.

‘At Unilever, we’ve set industry-leading benchmarks for responsible sourcing to deliver on our commitment to sustainable growth,’ said Jan Kees Vis, Unilever’s Global Director of Sustainable Sourcing Development.

‘By transferring our benchmarking to the ITC Standards Map, we aim to increase the transparency of the process by measuring across international standards,’ he added.

With more than a hundred standards, codes and sets of practices referenced against a comprehensive set of over 800 data points, ITC’s Standards Map offers a unique, central and neutral benchmarking exercise on sustainability standards.