F rom the air, the tea plantation appears as a vast green oasis in an otherwise arid landscape. Its full scale becomes even more apparent once you have driven through the 13,500 hectare estate having landed on its private air strip - the distance from the first tea bush to the last is 75km and the journey takes you past the hospitals, houses and schools that service a population of some 100,000.

It's big and it needs to be. This is Kericho, the Kenyan tea plantation where Unilever, the world's biggest tea company, sources much of the black tea for the world's biggest tea brand, Lipton Yellow Label, as well as the UK's number one tea brand PG Tips. The plantation produces 36,000 tonnes of hand-picked tea each year - 11% of Kenya's entire tea output and more than the total UK consumption of PG Tips in the UK - enough to fill 14 billion tea bags.

It's now more than four months since the estate gained ethical accreditation from the Rainforest Alliance. PG Tips in the UK and Lipton in the rest of Western Europe now carry the Alliance's ethical frog logo to show they contain more than 30% certified tea, prompting McDonald's to switch its tea to PG Tips in the UK.

Its move has sparked a flurry of activity from other multinationals. This week, Kraft confirmed it was converting its three core Kenco lines to 75% Rainforest Alliance this year, and all other Kenco lines by 2010. In February, Tate & Lyle announced the switch of its retail lines to Fairtrade.

But can operations of this sort of scale be truly ethical?

You only have to visit Kericho to see that Unilever believes scale is not a barrier to ethical sourcing. The plantation employs 12,000 full-time tea pickers, 6,000 seasonal staff, 2,000 factory staff and 1,200 supervisory staff but is home to more than 100,000 people when workers' families are taken into account. Everybody is given free basic housing, electricity and hospital treatment as well as access to 19 primary schools, 39 nursery and two secondary schools, community halls, a hospital and four health centres.

Unilever demonstrated its commitment to workers' welfare during the civil unrest that spread across the country earlier this year, when the plantation was hit by rioting and 11 people were killed. It moved more than 1,000 workers back to their ancestral homelands and provided them with water and food. With the country now returning to normality, Unilever's ability to support a large community with housing and hospitals has become more important than ever before, it says. And its help is much appreciated, according to one tea picker I met in the field.

"The company has sustained me and my family. It has given my children schooling and medical care and it feels like home," says Evelyn Nasimuyu, a 47-year-old worker who has lived on the estate for 20 years with her children, who attend its schools. She intends to start her own business selling second-hand clothes and has been able to save thanks to the support she gets.

Unilever's hospital also plays a vital role in the community, treating about 25 patients a day. "The Alliance wanted to see the local hospital as well as our own, so we took it to the district hospital," says Richard Fairburn, MD of Unilever's Kenyan tea business. "That was the defining moment in the certification process when it saw how people outside the plantation live compared with how they live here."

"Government-run hospitals are a lot bigger but they are not very good," Eric Tonui, the company medical officer tells me. "People treasure that Unilever provides them with healthcare. Good workers don't come easily and we want them to stay healthy, so we look after our people."

Kericho achieved accreditation not just for how it looks after its workers but also for its commitment to the environment. The estate has four hydro-electric power plants that generate 70% of its electricity usage and 2,000 hectares of continually replanted eucalyptus forests - the trees are chosen because they grow quickly - which are harvested for fuel wood. Almost every week trees are being chopped down and replanted somewhere on the plantation.

Despite its plantation being rubberstamped by the Rainforest Alliance, Unilever's move into ethical territory is not without its detractors. Last month Greenpeace published a report accusing the company and its suppliers of spearheading the clearance of forest in Indonesia and contributing to global warming. Even Unilever's choice of ethical scheme has come under attack from certain quarters of the industry, which have suggested that the Rainforest Alliance offers multinationals a back door way into becoming ethically certified. Critics argue that companies such as McDonald's and Kenco are working with the Rainforest Alliance because they can't meet a commitment to Fairtrade.

"It's surely no coincidence that large companies are opting for Rainforest Alliance certification," one well-known Fairtrade company says. "Would they be able to meet the high standards of Fairtrade? Probably not."

Rainforest Alliance accreditation will not guarantee a better future for tea growers, says Penny Newman, CEO of Cafédirect, because it does not require a minimum payment to farmers. "It requires a greater commitment than signing up to a label with zero financial obligation to pay growers more," she says. "It does not require buyers to pay even a minimum price to growers or to help smallholder growers."

Unilever dismisses such claims as short-sighted. Kericho pays its workers three times the Kenyan minimum agricultural wage and says that certified tea commands 10%-15% higher prices at auction. It estimates it will pay farmers €2m more for its tea by 2010 and €5m more by 2015. But it does not guarantee a fixed price to limit oversupply of tea, says Michiel Leijnse, global brand development manager for beverages.

While the average Briton drinks 1,000 cups of tea a year, the price of tea has fallen thanks to a glut of supply driven by countries such as Vietnam and higher yields. "Guaranteeing a fixed premium is not the solution because of oversupply," says Leijnse. "We want to pay a premium but it has to be market based. We don't want to create a system whereby paying a subsidy will encourage more people to move into tea, further increasing supply."

An Alliance spokeswoman insists its scheme is not in competition with Fairtrade and is just as valid. "Certification brings economic benefits and sustainable practices that help farmers profit through better management and access to premium markets," she says. "It is supported by environmental and social accountability groups."

The scale of Unilever's ethical commitment is certainly not half-hearted. The company aims to have PG Tips and Yellow Label Lipton fully certified by 2010 and only use certified producers for all its tea by 2015. The work it has done at Kericho has gone a long way to achieving this.

And while Fairburn admits that carrying the Rainforest Alliance logo on-pack will raise PG Tips' profile, where's the harm in that, he asks: "It is good for our business but it is good for our workers and the industry, which is more important."

Unilever's work is also supported by the tea industry. "The Rainforest Alliance is studious in its approach and because of Unilever's position it will become the standard for tea companies," says Michael Pennant Jones, corporate social responsibility manager at tea supplier Finlays, which also has a plantation in Kericho. "It is a huge step. Unilever buys from many producers and they will be looking over their shoulders. What it is doing has to be complemented."

The debate will no doubt continue to rage over the ability of global companies to be as ethical as their smaller counterparts. Ultimately it will be up to consumers to decide. But the large players should be applauded for standing up and being counted.nhow they compare

Rainforest Alliance



Founded: 1992

Remit: promoting sustainable forestry, agriculture and tourism

Minimum payments: no

Key stakeholders: PG Tips, Innocent, McDonald's, Kenco, Costa Coffee, Chiquita

Market value of brands: £500m



Fairtrade



Founded: 1970

Remit: guaranteeing a better deal for farmers in developing countries

Minimum payments: yes

Key stakeholders: Tate & Lyle, Cafédirect, Divine Chocolate, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, The Co-operative Group

Market value of brands: £500m

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