Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Unilever's beef products. Understandably, Unilever did not wish to see millions of
seafood consumers lose confidence in its fish products.
Unilever and WWF realised that while their motivations differed, they shared
a common goal of ending overfishing and safeguarding ocean ecosystems from
further harm. WWF was interested in protecting the ocean environment for its own
sake, while Unilever was committed to the future of its successful frozen foods
enterprise. In February 1996, WWF Director General Claude Martin and Unilever
Chairman Antony Burgmans met over dinner in The Hague to sign an agreement
heralding an unprecedented business/environment partnership (FAO 1996a). The
two leading non-profit and business entities agreed to collaborate in the creation of
a new organisation to be known as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
From the outset, the WWF/Unilever partnership was beset by critics. Many staff
at both entities did not favour collaboration at all, referring to it as 'getting in bed
with the enemy'. In the mid-1990s, the business/environment partnership was a
relatively new concept and few if any examples could be found in Europe. The World
Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) - of which Unilever was
a founding member - had only recently introduced the concept that businesses
could contribute positively to sustainability. The WBCSD was founded in 1990 by
forward-thinking Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny (WBCSD 2007). But
the staff leaders for the WWF/Unilever partnership were both from North America
(the US and Canada, respectively), and Unilever's staff leader had experienced
Canada's cod crisis first-hand. She was determined that Unilever should play a part
in developing solutions rather than contributing to the problem of unsustainable
fishing. The partnership was further assisted by Burson-Marsteller, the giant public
relations firm on permanent retainer to Unilever. Burson-Marsteller wanted more
than anything else for its client to reap the benefits of green publicity, provided it
was deserved.
Few transnational companies are more conservative than the Anglo-Dutch giant
Unilever. However, the corporation also has strong Dutch Calvinist roots and a
concomitant natural affinity for corporate social responsibility. Burson-Marsteller
executives suspected that the Unilever board would approve a partnership with
WWF aimed at combating unsustainable fishing. One Unilever board member later
reported that during the board's discussion of the idea, a fellow board member
raised the prospect that helping solve the fisheries crisis could cost the company
millions. Another said, 'But doing nothing would ultimately cost us more'. And he
carried the day.
Unilever and WWF took the idea of forming a Marine Stewardship Council
(modelled loosely on the FSC) on a world tour, co-sponsoring eight workshops
in as many countries. The two partners each also spoke about the idea separately
at industry meetings and NGO conferences. In 1996, WWF presented a paper to
a packed audience at the second World Fisheries Congress in Brisbane arguing
that the MSC would help create a new paradigm for managing marine fisheries
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