Unilever’s Ghanaian division was the first in Africa to achieve the company’s zero waste to landfill target, according to Head of Corporate Affairs, Gabriel Opoku-Asare.

Unilever recently announced that it had reached its global target to eliminate non-hazardous waste, four years after the launch of the company’s ambitious Sustainable Living Plan, in which it pledged to reduce its environmental impact. The company is believed to have saved €200 million via the initiative, and created hundreds of jobs.

The factory, located in Tema’s industrial zone, reduced its non-hazardous waste by 50 percent in 2013, and by July 2014 had further decreased this sum to zero. Abdelaziz Salah, Unilever Supply Chain Director for West Africa said in an interview with Citi FM, “We believe there is only one viable way to run a business and that’s sustainably. That is the only way to create a brighter future for generations to come”.

Unilever Ghana is also investing in a state-of-the-art Effluent Treatment Plant to enable the plant to enable it to reuse its waste water.