Prime Minister's Award for environment protection
Today, on 28th March 2011, Unilever Vietnam has great honour to become one of the first businesses in the country to receive the Prime Minister’s Award for its outstanding achievements in environment protection from 2005 to 2010. Mr. Dang Huy Dong, Vice Minister of Ministry of Planning and Investment, presented this prestigious award to Mr. JV Raman, chairman of Unilever Vietnam at the Dutch Embassy’s Networking Reception, on the occasion of the official visit by the Dutch Royal Family to Vietnam, in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung, the Dutch Royal Highnesses, various government officials and representatives of the Vietnamese and Dutch business community.
Following the prestigious First rank Labour Medal awarded to Unilever Vietnam in 2010 for its outstanding business performance and social contributions, this newest award from the Government of Vietnam – the first ever awarded to a foreign invested company in Vietnam - illustrates the Government’s recognition to Unilever Vietnam for its strong and long-term commitment to environment protection in every action it takes, to fulfill the company’s mission to help improve the lives for every Vietnamese.
During the last 15 years, Unilever Vietnam has always taken great efforts not only to succeed its business, but also to become a good corporate citizen towards the society, community and environment. This is a comprehensive effort through the company’s daily operations at the workplace and through many social and community programmes. Unilever Vietnam has effectively implemented natural resources saving program, such as energy & water saving, paper saving, and especially the waste management program and product innovations, to considerably reduce its impact on the environment. Thanks to those efforts, various environment awards have been presented to Unilever Vietnam such as: Green Business Award 2006 and the Special Award for Green Business with “The most advanced waste water treatment system” granted by Saigon Liberation newspaper and Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment; The First Prize of “Environment and Development” contest 2007 organized by Voice of Vietnam and Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment; The Golden Cup for Environmental Protection by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in 2009. In February 2011, Unilever Vietnam office in Phu My Hung, Ho Chi Minh City has been presented the “Green Office” certificate by WWF Vietnam for its successful implementation of an accredited environmental management plan at workplace.
Through Unilever Vietnam Foundation and Unilever brands, Unilever Vietnam has put great efforts to implement its sustainable development targets, focusing on 3 areas, (i) Improving health, hygiene & livelihood, (ii) Green Environment, and (iii) Sustainable sourcing. Unilever Vietnam has implemented its CSR commitment through long-term strategic partnership with the relevant Government agencies (i.e. Ministry of Health; Ministry of Education and Training; and the Vietnam Women Association), through joint initiatives with its customers and consumers as well as community-based environmental programmes.
These are also the targets and efforts that Unilever Vietnam takes in everything it does to implement Unilever Global’s commitment, which was launched in 2010 with Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Accordingly, Unilever Global has committed to double its business size while halving its impact on the limited natural resources of the planet. The key goals of Unilever Sustainable Living Plan are: (i) to halve the environmental footprint of its products; (ii) to help 1 billion people improve their health and wellbeing; and (iii) to source 100% of its agricultural raw materials sustainably.
At the awarding ceremony, Mr. JV Raman, Chairman of Unilever Vietnam, said: “Unilever Vietnam is committed to sustainable development and environment protection efforts. This commitment has not only been shown in Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, in every actions we take, but also in the daily life of each of our employees. This prestigious award from the Prime Minister of Vietnam will be the impetus to further our commitment to environment protection and sustainable growth of our business, through product innovations, partnership with local NGOs and the Government, through joint initiatives with our customers and consumers as well as community-based environmental programmes. Today, Unilever Vietnam is very pleased to receive the award of the Prime Minister. This illustrates that environment protection is not only an essential part of Unilever Vietnam business, but we hope that this will also be a case-study for companies in Vietnam in the global efforts for environment protection and sustainable development”.
