Consumer goods giant Unilever has announced a strategic partnership with Arzeda to transform the sustainability and performance of its cleaning and laundry products portfolio.
Over the next three years, Unilever will implement Arzeda's digital biology techniques to product innovations across its cleaning and laundry products assortment.
The partnership will impact many of the world's leading cleaning and laundry products brands, including Unilever's OMO (Persil), Sunlight, and Surf, the company noted.
'Superior, Sustainable And Affordable'
Peter ter Kulve, Unilever home-care president, said, "This partnership is an exciting step forward as we work to transform our cleaning and laundry business to be superior, sustainable and affordable to all.
"We look forward to working with Arzeda in developing a new generation of ultra-performing cleaning and laundry products with an environmental impact a fraction of the size of current products."
Arzeda optimises enzymes, originally derived from nature, to replace ingredients with a high environmental footprint commonly found in most cleaning and laundry products.
The company uses a combination of physics-based computational protein design and deep learning to optimise the functionalities of enzymes.
In addition to exploring enzymes occurring naturally, Arzeda is also able to design new versions with unique benefits that would otherwise not have been possible.
'A Key Milestone'
Commenting on the partnership, CEO and founder of Arzeda, Alexandre Zanghellini, said, "Arzeda's mission is to design and manufacture new proteins that improve health and sustainability, and we see this partnership as a key milestone to make this a reality in home care.
"Working with Unilever, we hope to create a new era for industrial enzymes that will contribute to a more sustainable world while improving consumer experience."
Clean Future Strategy
As part of its Clean Future strategy, announced in September 2020, Unilever has pledged to eliminate virgin fossil fuels as a feedstock for the chemicals in its cleaning and laundry product formulations.
Enzymes, which are low carbon, naturally derived and deliver added performance benefits, will be critical in helping Unilever realise its Clean Future ambition, the company added.
The company expects to reduce ingredients requirement by 50% in the formulation of cleaning products and deliver superior cleaning benefits to the consumers through the discovery and optimisation of new enzymes.
