Unilever to Share Cost- and Energy-Reducing Patents With Ice Cream Manufacturers
Unilever has made significant strides in innovating across the ice cream category in the last several years, and now the company is sharing some of its sustainability secrets to help others progress on eco-forward strategies.
The company is granting a free non-exclusive license for 12 of its reformulation patents, allowing ice cream manufacturers to tap into insights garnered from two pilots where Unilever kept products stable at a warmer freezer temperature.
The last-mile freezer cabinet initiative, announced last year, allowed Unilever to maintain product integrity at a warmer freezer temperature of -12°C, compared to the industry average of -18°C. Its pilot programs in Germany, leaning on research conducted at Unilever’s Global Ice Cream R&D Center, found that the effort is reducing energy usage by about 25% per freezer cabinet.
Accessing These Patents
Industry partners can contact [email protected] for more information about obtaining a license.
To achieve this reduction, the company cut back on energy consumption by exploring renewable electric-powered technology, overhauling the process of main technical components like compressors. It is having a measurable impact as Unilever reports that emissions from its ice cream freezers account for 10% of its overall value chain greenhouse gas footprint.
Unilever’s Wide-Scale Optimization Strategy
Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher recently outlined an action plan to address cost management, productivity gains, and production and logistics innovation.
He stated the company will be decreasing costs per unit produced and also implementing end-to-end network optimization and “supply chain resets” in North America in the personal care, beauty, and well-being categories.
He named ice cream Magnum among its power brands that will have “the first call on capital and resources” as the company reprioritizes its portfolio of products.
The efforts have helped Unilever move the needle on its Climate Transition Action Plan, which sets out to achieve enterprise-wide net zero emissions by 2039 and halve emissions impact across its products on a consumer use basis by 2030.
Andy Sztehlo, chief R&D officer for Unilever’s ice cream business, said these grants will allow peers and partners across the ice cream sector to benefit from and work to tackle emissions across the industry while delivering “the great quality ice cream products our consumers love.”
“We’re pleased to take this next step in our work to increase the temperature of our last mile ice cream freezer cabinets,” said Sztehlo. “We believe through collaboration, we can reduce the cold chain’s impact on the environment.”
More Ice Cream Innovations
This isn’t the first time Unilever has introduced efficiencies across the ice cream sector. Last year, the company developed an e-commerce app for its retail partners to work with AI-based refrigerators to monitor stock levels, make electronic payments, and view discounts and special offers. More recently, the company added in image capture and AI within 50,000 of its freezers to ramp up these inventory and order systems.
The company has also launched several fulfillment pilots, delivering its ice cream products via Robomarts via virtual storefront, The Ice Cream Shop.
Hear More From Unilever
As Unilever continues to digitize its end to end value network and transform its supply chain to one that is customer-centric, it’s finding that decision intelligence is playing a key role in helping it gain speed and agility. In this episode of Tech Transformation, we spoke with Juan Carlos Parada, global head of customer operations at Unilever, and Fred Laluyaux, CEO of Aera Technology, about their journey with this technology and where they’re taking it next.
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