Sebastian Munden is the former CEO of Unilever UK & Ireland, now serving as chair of Wrap, Ad Net Zero, Campden BRI and Defra’s EPR Scheme Administrator interim steering group.
So few in the fmcg industry could claim to have more expertise in building sustainability into business advancement. He’s even written a book, Sustainable Advertising: How Advertising Can Support a Better Future, co-authored with the Advertising Association’s Matt Bourn. It was published earlier this year.
So as this week’s guest editor, we took the opportunity to talk about Munden’s sustainability mission and fmcg’s role in creating a circular economy.
What’s your main purpose? My job is to encourage people to do the right thing, and I believe smart people solve difficult problems. It’s important to inspire businesses to understand this is helping them to prepare for a future that will be more sustainable, and it’s actually good for business.
I see this as the innovation opportunity of a generation for companies to steal a competitive advantage over others. It will drive innovation, it will drive better products, and it will be better for citizens.
Why are you so focused on sustainability? I love the food and drink industry. I think it’s great. I love global consumer products. But we’re at an inflection point. The world’s governments have all signed up to create a fully sustainable economy by 2050, and some businesses have been quicker at understanding both the competitive opportunities and the legislative implications. And of course, they’re discovering there are challenges along the way. So I’m interested in helping facilitate the conversation and getting organisations to really internalise what it means to be headed towards a fully sustainable economy and what you can do in the next 20-odd years.
What are the key challenges ahead? The big challenge is that a lot of a lot of people still think it’s an ‘either/or’: either we’re going to be a successful business or we’re going to be sustainable. Actually, the important thing is that sustainability is a strategic context and, therefore, every business needs to have a strategy – where to play and how to win – in the context of a Destination 2050 and a fully sustainable economy.
How can businesses ensure an effective strategy? You have to have a multi-variable approach because, otherwise, you end up with tunnel vision – which means you’ve forgotten health, or you’ve forgotten welfare for farmers.
What I loved about working at Unilever was the conversation was about understanding all the stakeholders needed to get it right to be a successful modern business. So, it’s about competitiveness and sustainability, not competitiveness or sustainability. It’s about how we are successful at serving more customers as a business and being sustainable.
How effective has Wrap been in its 24 years? What the team at Wrap has been quietly doing is bringing industries together and solving difficult problems. There are nearly 20 plastic Pacts around the world now, all working in that same sort of way. That’s been really good.
The other part that’s been really important is helping design standards. For instance, in textiles: design for durability. What I’ve been doing is really helping people put in place the resources to be able to do these things on a bigger scale.
Have Wrap’s voluntary business agreements had their intended effect? When it works well, a voluntary agreement brings the whole supply chain together to identify blockers. A good example would be plastic film, where you need the government to agree to recycle it – which it will do – and you need producers to think about how they use it in their packaging.
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How well does the organisation work at a grassroots level? First of all, in direct communications and the recycle website, where you can type in an item and work out how to recycle it: these are really useful. Also the team in the consumer media explaining good practice. The other way of looking at grassroots is in water projects – working with catchment areas and charities specific to particular rivers. Water is particularly important because water doesn’t understand different companies and different actors. Water just flows. So, the team at Wrap on water are really connected from the grassroots right the way through to suppliers and other actors on the river and back up the supply chain.
How do you feel about some businesses rolling back their net zero pledges? We see people reflecting on the first five to 10 years of trying, and realising hope is not a strategy. I would applaud companies that think so hard about this that they actually create a roadmap towards real success. That is better than greenwashing, which is setting a target in the knowledge that you have no idea – or worse, no hope – of getting there.
How big a problem is greenwashing? I think unintentional greenwashing now is as big a problem as intentional greenwashing. But we should think of the way in which advertising is, in many ways, self-regulated to very high standards. Our voluntary codes of regulation in advertising are fabulous. Now, occasionally something slips through, and we all know about it, but most of the time it doesn’t. The UK would not be the market I’m most concerned about when it comes to greenwashing.
What are the commercial considerations when thinking green? Sustainability can help gross margin because if you’re using less stuff, that’s usually lower cost. Now, you still have to make capital investments – so it’s about making sure you’re thinking it through.
Design is really important. Design to use the least; design for reuse; design your business model to leave nothing behind. It’s future-proofing your business because it means you’re not vulnerable to new taxes or costs you didn’t anticipate.
Are there alternatives to taxes, like the one on plastic packs, in driving sustainable behaviour? You can have requirements. You just make a law saying all packaging has to have 50% recycled material or 30% recycled. The thing with the tax is you can pay the tax but not do the deed. So, you could argue that, in some ways, tax is less good.
How important is government legislation? There has to be some sort of legislation to create a fair playing field and encourage people to do the right thing.
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The previous government’s simpler recycling is set to kick in next year. How important will it be? It will help massively because it takes away geographical variation. It takes away doubt, and it allows there to be scale play on materials. It’s really a big move, a big change.
What’s your feeling about the new government? I was really pleased when I saw Steve Reed’s priorities. In his top priorities, he’s got a net zero circular economy. It’s really the first time we’ve so explicitly seen a UK government department say ‘we’re really trying to solve this’.
Is it still possible to avert the climate crisis – or must fmcg simply prepare for the worst? Particularly in greenhouse gasses, but also in pollution and biodiversity, every bit helps. So we can’t have doom and gloom. It clearly is getting worse, but it doesn’t have to get so bad that we [face] massive migration.
That’s why all [sustainability] decisions for companies have to come together as a business strategy and not be seen as something on the side for experts and specialists – because, in the end, any company sitting down today needs to think about their future in a sustainable economy.
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