One of the world’s leading consumer goods brands, Unilever has committed to a €1bn investment to reduce fossil fuels from its cleaning products over the next ten years. Unilever plan to replace the carbon heavy petrochemicals in their products with ingredients made from natural sources such as plants and marine algae. The chemicals in Unilever’s cleaning products currently make up 46 per cent of the company’s carbon footprint, they hope the change will see them reduce that footprint by 20 per cent. “People want more affordable sustainable products that are just as good as conventional ones,” said Peter ter Kulve, Unilever’s president of its home care division. “We must stop pumping carbon from under the ground when there is ample carbon on and above the ground if we can learn to utilise it at scale.” Ter Kulve has also promised to work with smaller companies within the Unilever supply chain to enable those too to make greener choices. He said: “The writing is on the wall.. the next phase is industry change in chemicals and cleaning agents ….many of these big suppliers still have a lot of capital still locked in the old carbon economy.” The investment is the first phase in the company’s Clean Future strategy which is aiming to have net zero emissions from its products by 2039. Earlier this year Unilever was named as one of only six major companies from a list of 182 to receive a triple-A rating for its governance around environmental issues such as climate change, forests and water security. The Carbon Disclosure Project looked at companies from across the globe and ranked Unilever alongside Apple, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oreal and Nestle as pioneers on environmental issues.