Unilever CEO Paul Polman says that the consumer goods giant has set itself an aggressive objective to double its turnover.

“But we have to do it in a manner that reduces our environmental footprint as well as improves our social footprint. It is important that we have a business model that uses less of resources.

“The key driver of that is going to be innovation, better anticipating consumer needs and a certain speed and agility which is needed.”

Polman was in the city to inaugurate Unilever's global enterprise support and information technology centre in the tech hub of Whitefield near Bangalore.

This centre will be the largest operating centre for Unilever and will support HUL as well as the global Unilever business.

It has around 1,400 people working at the centre, including a number of vendor partners co-located with Unilever employees.

sustainable living plan

Polman spoke at length to the media on Unilever’s sustainable living plan launched two years ago which looks at reducing its overall environmental impact through better sourcing, consumer use and disposal.

“We are also committed to doing what we can to improve health, nutrition and hygiene,” he said.

Project Shakti

The Unilever CEO pointed to the innovation that is coming out of its Bangalore centre, which developed an application on the mobile phone that 40,000 women entrepreneurs under its Project Shakti programme can use.

Women in rural areas can transact through the mobile and HUL can monitor sales through this application.

vinay.kamath@thehindu.co.in