Being at the forefront of sustainability, Henkel just concluded a 10- a special promotion on a range of its environment-friendly laundry and home care products across all Carrefour stores in UAE, Oman and Qatar. The campaign built on Henkel's leadership position in sustainability, maintaining a balance between economic successes, protection of the environment, and social responsibility. Campaign representatives talked to consumers and handed leaflets that introduce interesting information about adopting a sustainable lifestyle at households. The leaflets include tricks to save up on cleaning material and other habits that each person can adopt to reduce their own environmental footprint and play a role in sustainability. The three main laundry and homecare brands which supported the campaign were DAC, Pril and Persil. "Our long-term goal is to increase resource efficiency and constantly improve our environmental footprint. We take every aspect of our portfolio and the entire value chain into account, while continuously improving all products. The campaign was part of Henkel's efforts to promote sustainability and encourage best practices," said Ahmed Nasser, General Manager of Laundry and Homecare GCC at Henkel. "It is interesting to see how consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability and the fact that we are able to provide solutions to their environmental concerns." With sustainability being one of the five values that shape Henkel's strategic direction, the company invests millions of euros in Laundry and Home Care to achieve significant cuts in energy and resource use. There are more than 30 collaborative programs with universities and research institutes around the world put in place to investigate and develop new sustainable material. Henkel currently uses 100% biodegradable surfactants and over 10,000 metric tons of carbon emissions are saved in producing the hand dishwashing liquid Pril alone every year. These figures depict Henkel's continuous efforts to produce sustainable products which is part of the company's strategy to foster resource-conserving consumption. Henkel has carved a niche in sustainability across the region for decades with a number of initiatives to reinforce its mission across the GCC and Middle East. As part of a long-term vision, Henkel has initiated "Educate for a Sustainable Life" campaign in 2013 targeting the younger generation of school students. The campaign was aimed to inform the decision makers of the future about the importance of sustainability and communicate that every individual is capable of making a difference by adopting better practices. In 2014, 1300 students were educated compared to 1140 in 2013. Henkel aims to reach an even larger number of students by the end of this year to further build on this initiative. Over the past three decades, Henkel has been actively developing more innovative products that help achieve better sustainable measures across its portfolio. This allowed for strong savings on valuable resources such as 59% savings on water consumption, 46 % savings on energy consumption and 46% reduction on waste. — SG
