Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/12/2019
12:30 - 13:30
Location
Impulse
Categories
On the 6th of December, Wageningen University welcomes the king of the Netherlands to open the new research center of Unilever on the campus. After Friesland Campina, the WUR now has another close partner in the business world that has it’s own building between the education and research buildings. As critical student organizations, Otherwise and Stichting Boerengroep want to have a discussion about the close connections between the University and multinationals like Unilever and Friesland Campina. Can we speak of a conflict of interest? Do these companies threaten the independence and freedom of speech of the University, and is research being used to allow these companies to grow even further?
Because this day is all about Unilever, we also want to take a moment to question the company as such. In many rankings, they are presented as an example for other companies and they work closely together with NGO’s to solve social and environmental challenges, both in developing countries as in the Western countries. As they were one of the first ones involved in these strategies, they more or less defined what it means to be sustainable. And for them, it still mainly seems to be about profit and growth. Can they be accused of greenwashing? And what role should companies take in a transition to a fair, circular world?
All of these questions will be addressed in a lunch discussion, on the 6th of December in Impulse!