2019年5月17日，是一个特别的日子。它的红色和白色公司标志与龙和蜂鸟可以在英格兰在墙上的冰淇淋中看到，在非政府组织的商标旁边，我拯救孩子们。很少对消费者作为供应商直接可见的Symrise。首映的原因？墙壁的冰淇淋是联合利华的子公司，使用来自Madagascar的可持续香草提取物在名称“香草变革”名称下出售的各种品种。Symrise与联合利华和两个非政府组织一起推出了项目。

“The project makes us proud because we can show our direct influence on the production of a very sustainable raw material. In addition, we can excellently position ourselves in the environment of these brands, with which we share the same values,” says Gérald Delettre, who supports the Symrise customer Unilever and worked with Ian Maskell to drive the project forward. Maskell is Vice President Global Brand Development at Unilever, where he is responsible for ice cream. He shares Delettre’s enthusiasm. “It’s a small revolution for us, too, to introduce one of our suppliers to consumers in this way. But without this fantastic partner, we couldn’t do this kind of work,” says Maskell, who leads a large and diverse business.

The starting signal

在竞选活动之前过去几年过去了。2014年德国国际合作（GIZ）支持的两家公司在2014年，德国国际合作协会（GIZ）支持的第一批痕迹决定改善马达加斯加和家庭的香草农民的生活条件。当Ian Maskell访问Sava地区时，事情真的很快就去了，看到了对岛上的村庄社区的混合。这次访问就像催化剂。“我们对那里的工作在那里留下了非常深刻的印象，”Maskell说。“对我而言，这是第一次接触到一家如此致力于特定成分和背后的人民的公司。”

Wall’s decided to support the project. “The people in Madagascar have to struggle with so many problems – with a poor education system, with severe poverty as the twelfth-poorest country in the world, with corruption and poor health care. It’s very touching when you come from a Western country and are used to our lifestyle.” At the same time, it was obvious to them how proud peo- ple were of their product despite all their hardships, for example, when they showed the plantations, which are often far away from the houses.

Strong partners

“Our teams work very closely with our partners, for example, in fulfilling the requirements for organic certificates,” says Delettre. One of these partners is the Rainforest Alliance, where Pilar Pedrinelli works as Public Engagement Manager. A committed manager early in her career, Pedrinelli had an interesting role at Vanilla For Change, which she helped develop as a Unilever employee. In autumn 2019 she moved to the NGO, a decision that was also connected to her experiences in Madagascar. “In Madagascar, we organized events for Vanilla For Change, such as a soccer tournament between different villages where the players wore the campaign logo on their backs,” she says, remembering. “At the time, this really touched me because I realized what influence we as a company could have.” After Vanilla For Change started, she thought about how she could work more directly on these kinds of projects. The next step was to move to a non-governmental organization. “I can contribute things here that I learned at Unilever, as a globally active company – and continue to work with the Group and other partners.”

For her, partnerships are the key to success, no matter which side you are on. “Success only comes through cooperation,” she says, often referring to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 17, which envisions global cooperation based on partnerships leading to sustainable development. “Our work would not function at all without companies like Symrise. We need their influence, their support for the communities,” says Pilar Pedrinelli. At the Rainforest Alliance, Pedrinelli will, for now, focus on other areas in order to further publicize the work of the NGO. But she’ll keep an eye on vanilla. “Part of the commitment at Symrise is, for example, to support farmers in diversifying their agriculture with new products, thus securing their income and protecting the environment at the same time. That’s a very good approach,” she says. It would be conceivable, for example, to also certify these raw materials or to be involved in the projects right from the start.

From madagascar to the world

对于Pilar Pedrinelli，在马达加斯加完成的工作是帮助人们改善他们的生活条件的巨大一步。“但是当时，我们也想到了我们如何使vanilla改变世界各地的变化以及我们如何让别人看到我们看到的方式，”她回忆道。这个目标的合适伙伴是加拿大非政府组织我，在英格兰也活跃。它激励年轻人参与他们的社区;共有10万人已经参与其中。“我是我们正是沟通我们故事的合适伴侣。我们一起能够传达一条简单的信息，“联合利华的Ian Maskell说。“我们的承诺推动了一个改变，将有利于马达加斯加和英国的年轻人。”

The Unilever manager looks to the future in other ways, too. “We are considering how we can extend Vanilla For Change to other ice cream brands,” continues Maskell. But that’s not all – “The project was a kind of turning point for us as to how we can and want to work together with suppliers. In this way, we will also make the purchasing of other raw materials more sustainable – and here we have learned a lot from Vanilla For Change.”