Humanitarian of the Year award
Unilever's former Chairman, Antony Burgmans, has won a Humanitarian of the Year award for his contribution to corporate responsibility in water conservation during his career at Unilever.
The awards ceremony on 25 October, which was organised by the United Nations Association of New York, celebrated UN Day and the UN Millennium Goal Concerning Water. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the event saying: "Solving the water problem is fundamental to any effort to eradicate poverty, promote peace and achieve a better world for all".
He said he hoped efforts by people such as Antony Burgmans and companies such as Unilever would "inspire others to join the search for solutions to the world's water crisis".
About 1.1 billion people, or 18% of the world's population, lack access to safe drinking water while 2.6 billion, or 42%, do not even have access to basic sanitation.
Accepting the award, Antony told the assembled audience of national and international policy makers, NGOs and ambassadors, that for him it was "recognition of the hard work by all those who are not here this evening, the 180 000 Unilever employees".
He also spoke about how business success can be combined with doing business in a responsible way. He stressed the need for businesses to co-operate with NGOs in areas of mutual interest, mentioning the partnership, ten years ago, between Unilever and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that led to the establishment of the independent Marine Stewardship Council for certifying sustainable fisheries and helping consumers to make responsible choices when buying fish.
