Durban - 22 September 2011

Global FMCG company Unilever bagged the award for the "Company with the Best CSR and Sustainability Practices" at the International Conference on Corporate Governance and Sustainability held in Mauritius.

Elizabeth Pretorius, Communications Director of Unilever South Africa, received the award on behalf of Hindustan Unilever from India's Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily.

The conference hosted by the Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability was attended by 150 delegates from countries such as India, South Africa, Singapore, Ghana, Uganda, UK and USA and had as its theme "Enhancing Effectiveness of Boards through Corporate Governance Best Practices".
Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability was set up with a vision to become a think tank and a catalytic institution to bring about qualitative improvements in the corporate governance and corporate sustainability practices of Asian companies.

Professor Mervyn King, a former Judge of the High Court of South Africa and chairman of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa is chairman of the Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability.

In her acceptance speech, Pretorius said Unilever placed a premium on sustainable growth to the extent that the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) was introduced globally, with a local chapter in different countries.

The USLP commits Unilever to improving health and wellbeing; reducing environmental impact and enhancing livelihoods.

"Two billion times a day, somebody, somewhere uses a Unilever brand. We have ambitions to double our business, yet halve our environmental footprint.

"In the words of Unilever's global CEO, Paul Polman, we will only succeed if we inspire billions of people around the world to take small every day actions that add up to the big difference," Pretorius said.


Issued by:
Yogin Devan
Meropa Communications 
Tel: 031 2010 550
Yogind@meropa.co.za

For media enquiries:
Glenda Sahadow
Unilever South Africa
Tel: 031 570 2454
Glenda.Sahadow@unilever.com