Unilever honors Cargill with 'Visionary' award

LONDON, Sept. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- To help Unilever achieve its business goals, Cargill has delivered over the past four years a series of ground-breaking solutions aimed at helping Unilever reduce its environmental impact, improve sustainability and grow its business through innovation. This work has resulted in Unilever selecting Cargill as its first-ever "Visionary" award winner during its fourth Partner to Win Supplier Summit earlier this month in Wembley, London.

Cargill was the first company to sign up to Unilever's Partner to Win program in 2011. Unilever acknowledged Cargill for delivering substantial results on every one of the Partner to Win key priorities: driving innovation, responsible and sustainable living, quality and service, value and capacity and capability. With respect to helping Unilever improve sustainability, Cargill and Unilever formed eight "joint crop teams," which work to ensure a traceable, sustainable source of a variety of crops and supply chains around the world.

"I congratulate Cargill for winning the Visionary award," said Unilever Chief Procurement Officer Dhaval Buch. "It is our mission to maintain these fantastic relationships with our suppliers and create mutually beneficial business opportunities. Partner to Win plays a vital role in helping us achieve the Compass vision – our strategy for sustainable growth, which can only be delivered through partnerships."

Paul Naar, Cargill Executive Vice President Food Ingredients and Systems, accepted the award on behalf of Cargill: "A company like Unilever, aiming to grow its business by improving people's health and well-being while also reducing its environmental impact, thrives on dependable partners who can see the big picture. We are truly honored to receive this award and we will keep working to develop our relationship and drive sustainable growth for both our companies."

About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries. We work with 174,000 colleagues around the world and generated annual sales of €49.8 billion in 2013. Over half of our company's footprint is in the faster growing developing and emerging markets (57% in 2013). Working to create a better future every day, we help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. Our portfolio includes some of the world's best known brands, 14 of which - Knorr, Persil / Omo, Dove, Sunsilk, Hellmann's, Surf, Lipton, Rexona / Sure, Wall's ice cream, Lux, Flora / Becel, Rama / Blue Band, Magnum and Axe / Lynx - now generate a turnover of €1 billion or more.

Our ambition is to double the size of our business, whilst reducing our overall environmental footprint (including sourcing, consumer use and disposal) and increasing our positive social impact. We are committed to helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, sourcing all our agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020, and decoupling our growth from our environmental impact. Supporting our three big goals, we have defined nine commitments, underpinned by targets encompassing social, environmental and economic areas. See more on the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan at www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/.

Unilever has been recognised in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes for 14 consecutive years. We are included in the FTSE4Good Index Series and attained a top environmental score of 5, leading to inclusion in the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index. Unilever has been named sector leader of the CDP's Forests programme for three consecutive years, and in 2014 led the list of Global Corporate Sustainability Leaders in the GlobeScan/SustainAbility annual survey - for the fourth year running. Unilever was named LinkedIn's third most sought-after employer worldwide in 2013.

For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com.

About Cargill
Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, we help people thrive by applying our insights and nearly 150 years of experience. We have 143,000 employees in 67 countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities where we live and work. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

SOURCE Cargill