Today, Genomatica (Geno), a leader in biotechnology and sustainability, and Unilever launched a venture to develop and commercialize alternatives to palm oil and cleaning ingredients derived from fossil fuels. These ingredients are integral to the formulations of thousands of everyday cleaning and personal care products. With the growing demand for sustainably sourced palm oil, this initiative aims to bring additional responsibly sourced palm oil alternatives to the market.
With $120 million jointly invested in this newly formed initiative, and other strategic investors expected to join, the company will develop an alternative plant-based ingredient using biotechnology. The innovation is particularly relevant to cleaning and personal care products that require ingredients to foam and remove dirt. Currently, however, there are few viable alternatives to palm and fossil sources that can be produced on a large scale to make these ingredients. Thus, the company offers the opportunity to tap into the combined $625 billion market for cleaning and personal care products. For Unilever, one of the world's largest soap and detergent manufacturers, this is the largest investment to date in palm oil alternative biotechnologies.
Companies like Unilever, whose products are used by 3.4 billion people worldwide every day, are increasingly partnering with biotechnology innovators like Geno to explore, develop and manufacture new versions of traditionally sourced ingredients. While palm oil will remain an important raw material for Unilever, these alternative ingredients can play an increasing role in diversifying supply chains to drive optionality, sustainability, profitability and transparency.
Geno will deploy its proven biotechnology platform and is already beginning to scale up the process of its advanced technology to produce the ingredients. Early estimates have shown that companies could reduce the carbon footprint of palm-derived ingredients by up to 50 % with this technology-based plant-based alternative.
Richard Slater, Unilever's head of R&D, said:
" Biotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the supply of our cleaning ingredients and ensure that Unilever is a forward-looking company - for consumers, shareholders and the planet we all share. This new venture will sit at the intersection of science and sustainability, meaning we can continue to grow our business without relying solely on palm oil or fossil fuel derivatives, while making our supply chains more resilient through access to alternative ingredients.
We will marry science and nature to ensure that our consumers don't compromise between product efficacy and sustainability. We are building this innovative new company to have the scale to make a real impact and change in our industry, helping to reinvent the chemistry of household and personal care products for the 21st century."
Christophe Schilling, CEO of Geno, said:
" Geno's collaboration with Unilever builds on its strong track record of partnering with market leaders who are committed to accelerating the commercialization of sustainable materials in their industries - from clothing to cleaning ingredients now. We developed our technology in response to our planet's urgent climate crisis and have proven that biotechnology can replace traditional production methods to produce ingredients from organic sources that deliver both high performance and sustainability at scale.
Our technology enables alternative supply routes for materials whose supply chains often have limited social and environmental transparency, providing more resilient supply chains that are transparent, traceable and responsibly sourced as demanded by consumers. Beyond creating new transparent and responsible supply chains and alternative sourced materials, our Geno technology also represents the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100 million tons in the coming years."
