Unilever

Lobbying
Unilever discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates. While it discloses a detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets, it could make its framework clearer by creating a dedicated publicly available document. The company also discloses the advocacy activities it has undertaken but has an opportunity to gather all the information relative to its advocacy efforts in one central document.

Stakeholder engagement
Unilever discloses the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Moreover, its stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, including biodiversity, nutrition and social areas.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Unilever discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. The company also has group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain and reports consistently against all its targets. Furthermore, Unilever provides evidence of linking performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Unilever has a commitment to ensure zero conversion, with time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. The company also discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains, and the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free. Furthermore, the company is committed to restoring ecosystems, and it discloses details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
Unilever has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against them. Additionally, the company reduces its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and its scope 1 and 2 targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Unilever discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, and it has a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and reports progress against it.

Solid and air pollution
Unilever identifies ingredients of potential concern in its portfolio, and goes beyond legislation in reducing or phasing out ingredients based on its standards code. It demonstrates commitment and partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction, as well as discloses quantitative data on the increasing proportion of recycled plastic used. Additionally, the company has set a target regarding the reduction of virgin plastic use, and reports progress against it. The company also reports regularly on the emissions of harmful air pollutants.

Water
Unilever discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality, regularly reports on water pollution, and reports a decrease in water pollution. Furthermore, the company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas, and it engages with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company has a commitment to respect the right to water, and it works with its business relationships to improve their practices regarding access to water and sanitation.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Unilever requires its business relationships to identify and recognise affected Indigenous Peoples and to obtain their free, prior and informed consent regarding whether and how to carry out projects.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Unilever is committed to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Act ethically
Unilever discloses a public commitment to protect personal data. Also, it discloses a global tax strategy and the income tax paid in all its tax jurisdictions. The company discloses that the audit committee has been given the responsibility by the Board to review its global tax strategy.

Unilever also has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption along with a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding those topics. Furthermore, it discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a policy statement and specifies that it does not make political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
Unilever has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers in its operation and supply chain. It also discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships.

Moreover, Unilever discloses that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage and describes how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates as well as how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. It publicly states that all overtime work must be consensual and paid at a premium rate.

Furthermore, Unilever discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group and gender, and that it currently has 38.46% women on the board. Additionally, it commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment and discloses targets to have 40% women on the board, ULE and senior management, and to empower 5,000 women in cocoa farming communities by 2025.

Respect human rights
Unilever has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and ILO core labour rights, and it expects the same from its suppliers.  It describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations and supply chain. Also, it discloses how it has assessed its salient human rights risks and discloses these. Additionally, the company has a global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate salient human rights issues, including a description of how it applies to its supply chain.

Moreover, Unilever discloses categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities and demonstrates how it engages with them. Furthermore, it indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
Unilever has an opportunity to report (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Stakeholder engagement
Unilever discloses the issues raised by its employees from the annual survey. However, it could disclose the topics raised by other stakeholder groups during its engagement activities, beyond materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While Unilever states that the board of directors has expertise in ESG, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics including nutrition, climate, water, soil health, social inclusion, ecosystem conversion and biodiversity.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding Unilever’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promote restoration. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

GHG emissions
Unilever discloses that its full value chain target is consistent with a 2°C temperature increase and it should align its scope 3 targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
Unilever has disclosed a forest footprint report and efforts towards a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023. However, it has not assessed its overall impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations. Similarly, despite monitoring deforestation in its palm oil supply chain, the company has not assessed its impacts on nature in its upstream activities. Opportunities exist for the company to assess and disclose its dependencies on nature both within its own operations and its upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
Unilever has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
While Unilever has disclosed the locations of its palm oil suppliers in relation to areas important for biodiversity, as well as naming endangered species adjacent to these suppliers, there’s room for further transparency. Specifically, it could disclose the locations of all its upstream business relationships that are in or near areas important for biodiversity. Additionally, it has the opportunity to disclose species existing in or adjacent to all its supplier locations, and to share the conservation status of species identified in its own operational locations according to national and international lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Unilever has an opportunity to disclose all its inputs according to an international standard. The company does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance.

Solid and air pollution
Based on available evidence, Unilever is not reducing the production of hazardous waste and has not committed to avoid developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties. While the company discloses some data related to plastic waste, it has an opportunity to report on the amount of plastic waste generated, and proportions directed from or to disposal. The company could also set specific, time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

Water
Unilever has an opportunity to set time-bound targets to reduce water withdrawal and water pollutants across its operations.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Unilever mentions Indigenous Peoples’ rights but does not show a commitment to respecting these rights. There are no references provided to the relevant part(s) of ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Additionally, the company fails to disclose its processes for identifying and recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples when its operations may impact these rights. The company also does not describe how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior, and informed consent.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Unilever has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
Unilever states that it has a process for identifying bribery and corruption but could disclose details of this process. It also has an opportunity to include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships.

Furthermore, the company could disclose its expenditures on lobbying activities and a requirement for its third-party lobbyists to comply with its lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
Unilever has an opportunity to disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category, by significant locations of operation.