Unilever wins award for CSR, sustainability practices

The conference, hosted by the Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability, was attended by 150 delegates from countries such as India, South Africa, Singapore, Ghana, Uganda, UK and USA and had as its theme 'Enhancing Effectiveness of Boards through Corporate Governance Best Practices'.

Professor Mervyn King, a former judge of the High Court of South Africa and chairman of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa is chairman of the centre, which was set up to become a think tank and a catalytic institution to bring about qualitative improvements in the corporate governance and corporate sustainability practices of Asian companies.

In her acceptance speech, Pretorius said the group placed a premium on sustainable growth to the extent that the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) was introduced globally, with a local chapter in different countries. The plan commits the group to improving health and wellbeing; reducing environmental impact and enhancing livelihoods.

"Two billion times a day, somebody, somewhere uses one of our brands. We have ambitions to double our business, yet halve our environmental footprint. In the words of the global CEO, Paul Polman, we will only succeed if we inspire billions of people around the world to take small everyday actions that add up to the big difference," Pretorius said.