How Unilever could truly help the Swacch Bharat campaign

In the past few weeks we have seen several senior corporate executives come forward to support the Swacch Bharat campaign. It is heartening to see such interest but the lack of imagination begs the question: Do companies really have the skills or imagination to drive actual innovation and change or are they looking at this campaign as yet another opportunity to drive sales?

One does not need to ask waste management experts, a regular appraisal of our trash bins will reveal just how pervasive the problem of packaging waste is. Yet, there seems to be no acknowledgement of this issue at all as far as the Swacch Bharat campaign is concerned. Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and managing director, Unilever, talks about how "Government, society and companies must come together to deliver Swacch Bharat", and the only way he thinks Unilever can contribute is through a "cohesive sustainable plan in the field of hygiene" and increasing "the frequency of use of products".

Now, there is nothing wrong with growing the market, as Mehta correctly points out, no product category has really matured in the market and there is tremendous scope for growth. However, that growth also magnifies the issue of packaging waste and Mehta offers no insight into how his company is planning to address that issue as part of the Swacch Bharat Campaign.

Unilever’s sustainable living section online provides some information about how it is looking at addressing the issue of sachet waste and it has been noted elsewhere that it has set itself a goal to develop and implement a sustainable business model for handling sachet waste by 2015. It has also been reported that the company has initiated a partnership with an organised retailer to encourage consumers to bring back recyclable packaging.

These are wonderful initiatives and the Swacch Bharat campaign offers a wonderful opportunity for the company to step up and take these initiatives further. How about reaching out to more retailers, after all, the Unilever distribution network is formidable, and piggybacking on the Swacch Bharat campaign to reach out directly to consumers?

It is probably unfair to single out Unilever but it is important to note that globally Unilever has taken on the challenge of building a sustainable business. It is part of several sustainable business platforms, including the Ellen McArthur Foundation’s efforts to re-think, re-design, and build a sustainable future through the circular economy framework.

One would have expected Unilever to lead the way by using the Swacch Bharat campaign as an opportunity to really look at innovative packaging. It would have demonstrated that the company recognises its own role in the system and is taking steps to address it. Also, the maturity of the market is no excuse; in fact, at low volumes it is an opportunity to experiment with packaging that is recyclable and better, compostable.