Paul Polman Quotes

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Paul Polman

Profession : Businessman

Birth : July 11, 1956

P&G started in 1837, Nestle in 1857. These companies have been around for so long because they are in tune with society. They are very responsible companies, despite the challenges that they sometimes deal with, all the criticism they get.

Paul Polman

I wanted to be a priest. I could have done that. I wanted to be a doctor. I could have done that. Circumstances didn't lead me to it, so my fallback option was business. I wasn't really motivated to this.

Paul Polman

I actually am a capitalist, and I believe in shareholders. But I believe in them as a result of what I do, not as a reason for what I'm doing. The same with profits - profits alone cannot be an objective. It has to have a purpose.

Paul Polman

We cannot eliminate poverty without enabling developing countries to engage more people in economic activity that use natural resources, and we cannot resolve runaway climate change without creating wealth in a more equitable and less carbon intensive way.

Paul Polman

Left unchecked, climate change risks not only making the poorest poorer, but pulling the emerging middle classes back into poverty, too.

Paul Polman

We need more food, more forests, better livelihoods for smallholder farmers, and lower emissions. If we want any of them, we must have all of them.

Paul Polman

The planet's forests are essential for life.

Paul Polman

Providing financial incentives for both local communities and national governments to conserve and restore forests also makes sense. It will put an economic value on these precious natural resources and drive the right behaviours from both government and business.

Paul Polman

If too many people feel excluded from the system and cannot access its benefits, they will ultimately rebel against it.

Paul Polman

The great challenge of the 21st century is to provide good standards of living for 7 billion people without depleting the earth's resources or running up massive levels of public debt. To achieve this, government and business alike will need to find new models of growth that are in both environmental and economic balance.

Paul Polman

Our political leaders have great responsibilities, but as with many situations in life, people often rise or fall to meet your expectations. Our responsibility as citizens is to expect our leaders to lead and to give them enough support so that they may do so.

Paul Polman

Permissible growth in the future has to be based on sustainable and equitable models.

Paul Polman

Practically, systemic thinking can be used to identify problems, analyze their boundaries, design strategies and policy interventions, forecast and measure their expected impacts, implement them, and monitor and evaluate their successes and failures.

Paul Polman

At Unilever, we operate in 190 countries with two billion people using our products daily. We take climate seriously because we know that it impacts those two billion people - and that means it impacts us, too.

Paul Polman

When the climate hurts, people and businesses also feel the pain.

Paul Polman

Leading businesses are making large strides in ensuring a sustainable future, but ultimately, they can only do so much.

Paul Polman

To achieve policy stability and certainty, we need to establish a meaningful price on carbon and cut the billions of dollars spent each year on fossil-fuel subsidies, along with well-structured financial tools and rules.

Paul Polman

If the world wants a climate deal and new development agenda that's good for the economy, for the poor, and for businesses, the path forward needs to include forests.

Paul Polman

Around the world, businesses and investors are increasingly taking action to climate-proof their own organizations.

Paul Polman

Business must go on reiterating its absolute commitment to embedding human rights in all it does, driving industry change through collaboration with governments, international organizations, and each other.

Paul Polman