Hear from Graeme Pitkethly, the Unilever CFO!
Hear from Graeme Pitkethly, the Unilever CFO!
Hi all,
Another week, another heat record.
It’s getting scary out there. But I do feel fortunate in one way. I am glad I made the decision 2.5 yrs ago to focus on climate full-time, as if I was trying to work on anything that wasn’t this right now, I would be second guessing myself every day!
Thank you to the hundreds of MCJ members who took a moment to complete our quarterly member survey 🙏! If you’re a member and haven’t filled it out yet, you can find the survey in your inbox or find a link to it here in the MCJ Slack. We’ve captured a wealth of insights, and look forward to sharing them with you transparently in the next newsletter.
Have a good week, everyone!
Jason
🤫Sneak preview of Monday’s episode with Graeme Pitkethly, Unilever CFO! To listen to the full episode, subscribe to My Climate Journey here or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in next week! Also, we would appreciate if you consider giving us a rating/review, as I am told those actually help to surface the podcast to more people :)
Snippets from this week’s episode:
Why are transparency and communication vital to Unilever's sustainability goals?
The goal of the company is to be one of the world's leading sustainable businesses. And by setting that sustainable business platform, it means that our brands can communicate their purpose to our consumers. And at the end of the day, we're a company of brands and people, and really the consumers who use our brands are super precious to us.
We believe that putting it out there and engaging in as many ways as we can, it's really helpful for system change because it's all about, you know, getting the subject out there and everybody engaging with it. There's no single company or person or podcast or government or NGO or anything that can tackle this problem alone.
Can you walk me through Unilever’s scope one, two, and three emissions and the company’s goals for the future?
Unilever's scope one and scope two carbon footprint is only two or 3% of our total footprint. Scope three for Unilever is about 97%. And the lion's share of that is consumer use because most of our products require you to heat water in order to wash your clothes, heat water to wash your face, run a tap to brush your teeth, heat water to have a shower using our shampoo, etc., it's the consumer use part where most of the carbon sits for us.
Our main targets fall into two camps. You've got medium-term target, which is to reduce our own emissions, so our scope and scope two, and just reduce it by a hundred percent by 2030. I don't think that's difficult for us. The long-term target is a net-zero value chain target, which is scope one, two, and three, but it's scope three only up until the point where the product is on the shelf and the consumer takes it.
What is your response to those who are critical of carbon offsets and their efficacy in addressing climate change?
If you're doing something that isn't actually reducing the amount of carbon that's out there, then, and you're just pushing the problem around. Or if you're removing future carbon that might have been burned but wasn't burned, that is not the same impact as a fundamental reduction. So we think the real tangible action is much more important than offsets. But as you've picked up from reading our CTAP, again, as we map it out, we predict that in order to make the medium-term targets that we've got there, we probably have to use some offsets to plug a gap.
And we'll be very careful to make sure that those offsets are quality offsets and not just, you know, claims that are being made, et cetera. So I think we're in that camp of, there's a role for offsets to play because they do make systemic change, but you've got to go all out with your own plan and make real reductions. And when you've done all of that, then you can get to your target via offset as a temporary way of getting to where you need to go.
🎙Startup Series
The Startup Series is back! This week Jason explores NCX with CEO & Co-Founder Zack Parisa. NCX, previously known as SilviaTerra, is a forest carbon marketplace. Built on a decade of industry-leading expertise, NCX takes a data-driven approach to democratize carbon markets in forests.
✨Highlights
Community Announcements
🏃Climate Sprints is putting together four sprint teams to explore different topics related to electrification, from heat pump financing to increasing EV charging capacity in cities. You and a team of 3-4 other people will dive deep into your topic, brainstorm as a team, conduct interviews, and do research. This round begins on July 12th, learn more and sign up at climatesprints.com.
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Climate Jobs
🤝The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment is hiring an Associate Director. The position is a core role in managing their mission-related investment program, Neglected Climate Opportunities, LLC (NCO).
🤝Arcadia is hiring a Senior Product Manager. Arcadia works to democratize access to renewable energy and build a more resilient grid.
For more positions and openings, check out the #climatejobs channel in Slack.
Climate Events
🧊MCJ Ice Breaker Thursday, July 15th at 1 pm ET. Meet fellow MCJ members and enjoy several 1:1 conversations. RSVP here!
⭐️Techstars Sustainability Roundtable: How Climate Startups are Getting Funding Thursday, July 15th at 11 am ET. Join Rodrigo Prudencio of Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Stacy Kauk of Shopify Sustainability Fund, and Joel Armin-Hoiland of Climate Finance Solutions for a conversation with Cody Simms of Techstars. RSVP here!
📚The MCJ Book Club Thursday, July 15th at 6 pm PT. MCJers are reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Members can RSVP here!
For more community events, check out the #events channel in Slack.
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