Sustainable tea
After water, tea is the most popular non-alcoholic beverage in the world. Unilever purchases around 12% of the world’s black tea supply. Much of this is for Lipton, the world’s leading tea brand.
Our commitment
In 2007 we committed to source all of our Lipton and PG Tips tea bags from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms by 2015.
We are working with Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental organisation, to ensure that all the farms we source from are certified. We decided that the Rainforest Alliance certification was the most appropriate because of its comprehensive approach towards sustainable farm management, covering social, economic and environmental aspects. This is in line with the way we have been managing our own Sustainable Agriculture Programme for over a decade.
Progress in 2009
Globally, around 15% of our tea now comes from certified farms, representing good progress towards our 2015 goal.
By the end of 2009, about 80% of Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea bags sold in Western Europe were sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms. We also launched Rainforest Alliance Certified™ tea in the US, Japan and Australia. The launch in Australia was followed by a 12% growth in sales.
By the end of 2009, 69 tea factories and estates had been certified and in Kenya alone, around 38 000 smallholder farms have achieved certification.
To achieve certification, the farms invested in a range of improvements, including protective suits for workers dealing with agrochemicals, waste water treatment equipment and micro hydroelectric schemes.
The Rainforest Alliance seal was instrumental in winning a contract to supply tea for McDonald's in several European countries. Following the launch, we have seen our market share increase in our key European markets.
Stakeholder view:
Unilever is taking an exciting leadership position by mainstreaming its commitment to sustainability through its brands. Our work with Unilever on tea sustainability will help improve working conditions for tea growers and help them access better markets and better prices.
Tensie Whelan
Executive Director
Rainforest Alliance
Lipton partners with National Geographic to tell sustainability story
In the US, Lipton launched a partnership with 'National Geographic' magazine to tell consumers about its work with the Rainforest Alliance. Called SustainabiliTea, the partnership coincided with the launch of Rainforest Alliance Certified™ Lipton tea in US stores in May 2009.
National Geographic travelled to Lipton’s Kericho tea estate in Kenya to document the benefits of Rainforest Alliance certification. Its SustainabiliTea website introducing consumers to the principles behind sustainable tea production and the history of Lipton tea contains photographs and interactive features.
Training smallholder tea farmers in Kenya
As the largest private buyer of Kenyan smallholder tea, Lipton set up a public–private partnership project in 2006 with the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and other partners to train smallholder farmers about sustainable tea cultivation. See Supporting smallholder farmers for more information.
Working with others
Unilever is involved in the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) Tea Improvement Projects, which aim to address bottlenecks in tea production that prevent tea smallholders from implementing sustainable practices. The project is resourced by IDH, Rainforest Alliance, KTDA, Oxfam and Unilever and will result in certification of around 150 000 hectares of tea farms in Kenya, Rwanda, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka over 2010–2013.
In this way we are supporting the Millennium Development Goals for poverty reduction and sustainable environments, and also helping to improve an open trading financial system.
