Paul Polman, CEO Unilever One Young World Speech

After last year’s summit, our Ambassadors created their own
Young Leaders Sustainability Network inside Unilever. They
developed a site on Unilever’s global intranet and crowd-sourced
ideas from other young people in our business.
They built and refined their ideas, voted on the ones they felt
could make the biggest difference and then shared them with the
business. We’re now looking to integrate their thinking even
more strongly into the work of our business and brands.
This shows what can be done if young people as a group are
given a voice.
So I am delighted to see you have not only chosen seven topics
to discuss, but that you are linking these to pledges for small
actions for positive change in your communities and businesses.
Our future is, quite literally, in our hands. It is down to all of us.
So although the world faces enormous social, economic and
environmental pressures, I am optimistic about the future.
I am optimistic because your generation understands the need for
sustainable living in a way that older generations, brought up
during a time of abundance, don’t.
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