NATURE
Michael Stewart Chief Corporate Affairs and
Communications Officer Unilever
Unilever launched its Climate & Nature Fund in 2020 and pledged to invest € 1bn( US $ 1.15bn) by 2030. Instead of just offsetting carbon, the fund focuses on direct action in key sourcing areas and involves smallholder farmers and local communities as longterm environmental stewards.
“ Unilever is already focusing efforts where we can have the greatest impact in our emissions – across the highest‐impact parts of our footprint, through innovation around new ingredients that drives decarbonisation and scaling the solutions that will drive measurable emissions reduction and build long‐term business resilience,” says Michael Stewart, Chief Corporate Affairs and Communications Officer at Unilever.
Unilever runs projects that connect biodiversity restoration with local economic security. As a founding partner of the Rimba Collective, the fund helps protect and restore over 500,000 hectares of forest in Southeast Asia, with indigenous and local forest communities directly involved in monitoring and conservation.
The fund supports regenerative agriculture projects by working with small-scale farmers in tea, coffee, and palm oil supply chains in places like India and West Africa. These local programmes improve soil health, restore water catchments, and boost biodiversity, while also giving smallholder farmers guaranteed markets and higher crop yields.
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