Dubbed NextLab, the LAB is a surfactant partially made from biomass instead of the fossil fuels. Currently, 85% of the overall carbon demand in chemical and derived materials sector is still met using fossil fuels. Unilever announced in 2020 that its Home Care business will source 100% of its carbon needs for cleaning and laundry products from renewable or recycled sources by 2030.
“With the chemicals used in Unilever’s cleaning and laundry products making up the greatest proportion of their carbon footprint (46%) across their lifecycle, pioneering the use of innovative new chemicals made with renewable feedstocks will enable the company to unlock new ways of reducing the carbon footprint of its products,” Cepsa says in a press statement. “As an upstream innovation, inclusion of NextLab within formulations will result in no change to the performance of the products that consumers know and trust.”