WAWWD & Unilever spectacle recycling initiative

07 April 2009 00:00:00

Press release
30/3/09

Staff at Unilever’s R&D Point Sunlight site will be invited to donate their unused spectacles to UK charity Vision Aid Overseas in an initiative organised by Dr Rob Chatfield, Open Innovation Manager R&D at Oral Care, in partnership with social change organisation, We Are What We Do.

The initiative, which will be officially launched at Unilever R&D Port Sunlight in Bebington, Wirral  at 1pm on Tuesday April 7, was “teed up” at the lab’s Christmas party by Dr Chatfield and his colleagues following a presentation given to Unilever employees by We Are What We Do’s co-founder, Eugenie Harvey.

We Are What We Do, the social change movement behind the best selling books, “Change the World for a Fiver – 50 actions to change the world and make you feel good”, “Change the World 9 to 5” , “Teach Your Granny to Text” and the iconic, I’m not a Plastic Bag project with Anya Hindmarch, aims to inspire people to use their simple everyday actions to change the world.

Dr Chatfield said: “I was really inspired by the talk Eugenie gave to the staff.  We Are What We Do’s ethos of small actions done by lots of people changing the world really struck a chord with me – I could see how the simplest actions could have a really significant impact on the world if enough of us did them.”

Dr Chatfield was particularly inspired by the story Eugenie told of Diana Green, an employee of HMRC who having read the book, Change the World for a Fiver, had decided to bring action 42 to life in her office – recycle your spectacles.

Three years ago, Diana Green created a simple poster for her office asking people to donate their unused spectacles which she would then send to one of the charities which supplies them to people in need in the developing world. She set up a single collection point in an old photocopy paper box in her office and emailed colleagues inviting them to participate. Her scheme now operates out of 94 offices of the HMRC and she has collected nearly 4,000 pairs and sent them to Vision Aid Overseas and others like it.

Dr Chatfield said, “This incredible story made me think of all the people that Unilever staff could help if they were given the same opportunity and so I approached Eugenie about whether we could work together on an initiative and use some of their fabulous creative content from the book to get people interested and inspired.

 “We’ve got about 1000 people working at R&D Port Sunlight.  Vision Aid Overseas will carefully examine all the spectacles that are donated to them to see if they can be used in their work. All those of a high enough quality will be used by Vision Aid Overseas teams who are providing eye care services in the developing world.”

At the launch of the initiative next week, Dr Chatfield and colleagues will be joined by Eugenie Harvey, and John Smith, from the Port Sunlight Specsavers which collects regularly on behalf of Vision Aid Overseas. They will ensure that all spectacles collected from Unilever are delivered safely to Vision Aid Overseas.

Eugenie Harvey said: “We’re really excited about the Unilever R&D Port Sunlight initiative which will build on the success of Diana’s great work at HMRC and will hopefully inspire many, many other company’s to consider the terrific impact they can make by bringing their work force together and providing them with the means and inspiration to make a small difference which – when added up across the company – can make a really significant difference

According to Dr. Chatfield, this is just the beginning. “We’ve started with recycling spectacles, but we’re hoping that we can launch a range of internal initiative like this. There’s lots of other simple ideas in We Are What We Do’s books – recycling mobile phones might be next for instance or perhaps we’ll come up with our own ideas.  We already offer people the opportunity to give blood at Port Sunlight, perhaps this will encourage more people to do that.”  

Jeremy Jalie of Vision Aid overseas said: “It’s great that Unilever are undertaking the collection and we look forward to receiving the spectacles they collect.  If anybody is interested in the work of Vision Action Oversees they can find out more about our work and make a donation at www.vao.org.uk/donation or by calling us on 01293 535016.  It costs us approximately £3 to get a pair of spectacles to a person in need because we need to pay for a volunteer optometrist to carry out an essential eye test.. Any donations will allow us to reach more patients in the countries we work in.

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For further information, please contact Jyoti Vara at We Are What We Do on 020 7936 1272 or Paul Matthews at Unilever on 01372 945925.

Editors’ notes

About Unilever

Unilever’s mission is to add vitality to life.  We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong local roots in more than 100 countries across the globe.  Its portfolio includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands including thirteen €1 billion brands and global leadership in many categories in which the company operates.  The portfolio features brand icons such as:

Knorr, Hellmann’s, Flora, Dove, Lynx, Vaseline, Persil, Domestos, Marmite and Pot Noodle.

Unilever has around 174,000 employees in approaching 100 countries and generated annual sales of €40 billion in 2008.  For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com.

Unilever R&D is a global organisation employing 6000 R&D professionals.  Unilever spends each year €900 million on R&D.  Unilever R&D Port Sunlight is one of Unilever’s six strategic centres for R&D (others are in Bedford, UK, The US, The Netherlands, India and China).  The work of R&D Port Sunlight is focussed on Unilever’s home and personal care brands including Persil, Comfort, Domestos, Sure, Dove, Sunsilk and Signal.

About We Are What We Do

We Are What We Do is a global social change movement that aims to inspire people to use simple everyday actions to make a difference to problems which affect us all - climate change, poverty, social exclusion, crime and inequality.   We believe that it is not just politicians and business leaders who change the world but that each of us, through the hundreds of small actions we take every day, plays a significant part in creating the public mood to which businesses and governments respond. We bring our vision to life by creating products, campaigns and initiatives which make these problems and their solutions accessible and engaging. www.wearewhatwedo.org

About Vision Aid Overseas

 Vision Aid Overseas is a charity dedicated to people in the developing world whose lives are blighted by poor eyesight. 300 million people need spectacles to live an ordinary life, but do not have them due to poverty and the lack of optical services. The World Health Organization has acknowledged this as the leading cause of avoidable visual impairment.

Many people who are functionally blind simply need spectacles to see. Without them children fail at school, mothers and fathers have to stop working and elderly people are forced to live without dignity. The consequences for individuals and their communities can be devastating.