> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.packagingeurope.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Paul Polman on how to turn sustainability into a competitive advantage - URL: https://www.packagingeurope.com/paul-polman-on-how-to-turn-sustainability-into-a-competitive-advantage/ - Published: 2026-10-26T13:52:16.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-26T13:52:16.000Z - Author: Packaging Europe staff writers - Tags: #homepage-featured, #homepage-features, Sustainability, Circular Economy, Social Impact **Ahead of his keynote discussion at the 2026 Sustainable Packaging Summit, business leader, investor, philanthropist, and former CEO of Unilever Paul Polman talks with us about how packaging businesses can align their commercial and sustainability ambitions.** **You can listen to and meet Paul Polman at Packaging Europe’s 2026 Sustainable Packaging Summit –** [**click here**](https://www.packagingsummit.earth/event/d66d241d-085d-41f3-90e8-ac135fa07043/ticket-pricing?ref=packagingeurope.com) **to learn more.** --- **What does “Net Positive” mean in practice, and why is it a useful ambition for companies in the packaging and FMCG industries?** Net Positive means thriving by giving more to the world than you take. It asks two simple questions: are you profiting from solving problems or adding to them? And is the world better off because your business exists? In practice, that means taking responsibility for your full impact, from sourcing raw materials and treating workers fairly to what happens after a product is sold. It means building a profitable business by restoring nature, improving livelihoods, and solving problems for consumer and wider society. For packaging and FMCG companies, the commercial logic is clear. These industries depend on reliable supplies of materials, energy, and water. Cutting waste and keeping materials in circulation can lower costs and reduce exposure to volatile prices and supply disruptions. Better design, reuse, and refill can also create opportunities to innovate, build customer loyalty, and grow. Net Positive brings these connections into the heart of strategy. It encourages leaders to rethink how they create value, so that growth strengthens the resources and communities the business depends on. That is a powerful basis for competitiveness and long-term resilience. **Moving from a linear to a circular economy is central to our obligations as an industry. What role can businesses play in making that shift?** Ultimately, business is the only actor that can redesign products, production, and business models at the scale needed to make a circular economy work. That brings with it a clear responsibility to lead. That leadership starts with eliminating unnecessary material and designing products for reuse and recycling. In packaging, this means making refill and reuse convenient and affordable, and ensuring packaging can actually be collected and recycled where it is sold. Calling packaging recyclable achieves little without the infrastructure behind it. No company can build a circular economy alone. Producers, retailers, waste operators, and governments need to agree common standards, invest in shared infrastructure and create reliable demand for recovered materials. The people collecting and sorting waste must also share in the benefits. Businesses should use their influence to support ambitious, consistent rules, including extended producer responsibility, that make investment viable and reward better design. Public commitments must be matched by private lobbying. We should compete to offer customers better products, while working together to shape the rules, incentives and infrastructure that make responsible competition possible. **With companies facing cost pressures and uncertainty, how can leaders make sustainability a near-term business priority rather than a long-term aspiration?** When margins are tight, waste is a luxury you cannot afford. Using less energy, wasting fewer materials, and building stronger supply chains can release cash and give your business room to grow. At Unilever, we saw how sustainability could fire people’s imagination. It challenged our teams to rethink products, question old habits, and build brands that improved people’s lives. Make that ambition tangible. Give people a challenge they can get their hands around: eliminate a wasteful process, make a refill easier to use, find a valuable use for something currently thrown away. Back these ideas with investment and reward the people who make them work. Progress builds confidence, and confidence unlocks further ambition. Some changes will pay back quickly. Use those savings to help fund the bigger moves. We should also be honest: not every sustainability investment pays back next quarter. Leaders must distinguish between discretionary spending and investment that protects the business’s ability to compete. Uncertainty makes disciplined choices more necessary; it does not make postponement costless. The future of your business is taking shape in the choices you make today. Give your people the confidence and the means to build something better. **Tickets for Packaging Europe’s 2026 Sustainable Packaging Summit are still available –** [**click here**](https://www.packagingsummit.earth/event/d66d241d-085d-41f3-90e8-ac135fa07043/ticket-pricing?ref=packagingeurope.com) **to learn more.**