Environmental, Social, Governance

We are a company of brands and people with a clear purpose - to make sustainable living commonplace.

At Hindustan Unilever Limited, responsible corporate conduct is integral to the way we do business. To succeed, we believe, requires highest standards of responsibility towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch and the environment on which we have an impact.

Sanjiv Mehta
CEO and Managing Director

Doing well by doing good

The Compass integrates sustainability into our business strategy with a belief that sustainable business and financial performance go hand-in-hand. With a robust governance mechanism, we are continually working towards our ESG commitments to lead change and make a positive difference to people and the planet.

The urgency to tackle climate change has never been greater. We are committed to improving
the health of our planet with timebound commitments and through various initiatives
within our organisation and beyond.

Our commitments

Net zero emissions for all our products from sourcing to point of sale by 2039

Halve greenhouse gas impact of our products across the lifecycle by 2030

Zero emissions in our operations by 2030

Replace fossil-fuel derived carbon with renewable or recycled carbon in all our cleaning and laundry product formulations by 2030

Share the carbon footprint of every product we sell

Deforestation-free supply chain in palm oil, paper and board, tea, soy and cocoa by 2023

Help protect and regenerate land, forests and oceans by 2030

100% sustainable sourcing of our key agricultural crops

Empower farmers and smallholders to protect and regenerate farm environments

Contribute to 3 trillion litres of water potential in water stressed locations in India through HUF by 2025

Implement water stewardship programmes in 12 locations in water stressed areas by 2030

100% of our ingredients will be biodegradable by 2030

Collect and process more plastic than we sell

100% reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic packaging by 2025

15% recycled plastic by 2025

Halve food waste in our operations by 2025

Maintain zero waste to landfill in our factories

Our initiatives

We are committed to taking small steps in our value chain and in the communities in which we operate, that will collectively and positively impact the planet.

Reducing water, waste and
emissions in our factory operations
Greenhouse gases

Reduction in CO2
emissions (kg / tonne of production)

94%
Eliminated coal usage across our sites
Energy-efficiency across operations
Against 2008 baseline
Water

Reduction in water consumption (in m3 / tonne of production)

47%
Through rain water harvesting and other initiatives in our manufacturing processes
Against 2008 baseline
Zero waste to landfill

100% of the non-hazardous waste generated in our factories was recycled or reused or disposed of in environment-friendly ways

100%

Waste

Reduction in total waste generated (kg / tonne of production)

54%
All our factories are equipped with pre-processing facilities such as waste segregation and waste reduction at source, thus improving the recyclability
Against 2008 baseline
Environment-friendly
freezer cabinets

We use environment-friendly freezer cabinets for our Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts that
use Hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants instead of Hydrofluorocarbons refrigerants.

1,46,000+
freezers in our fleet in India
Waste-free world

We wish to create a waste-free future and take
preventive measures to tackle plastic waste.

We collected and processed more plastic packaging waste from across
India than the plastic used in packaging of our finished products.

Plastic neutrality

Achieved plastic
neutrality in 2021

Plastic waste collection

Plastic waste collected and safely disposed of in 2021

1.16+ lakh tonnes

Less plastic, better plastic, no plastic

We are taking action on plastic across our business using our no, less and better plastic framework. For instance, we use post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic in the packaging for many of our brands and have eliminated plastic from our soap cartons.

We have also installed ‘Smart-fill’ stations in a few locations to enable consumers to refill their plastic bottles with our Home Care liquid products.

Our partnerships

We work with several partners to help keep plastic out of the environment.

Waste No More

Our 'Waste No More' curriculum launched in partnership with Xynteo advocates for behaviour change by teaching students the importance of waste segregation, collection, and recycling.

3+ lakh
students reached

Dry waste collection centres

Along with our partners the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, State Bank of India, Xynteo and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we have set up end-to-end projects for plastic waste Management in Mumbai.

We currently have four centres operational in South Mumbai, Bandra, Andheri and Dahisar.

The initiative will be scaled up by setting up more centres.

Project Utthaan

In partnership with UNDP India, we are working towards enhancing the lives of waste pickers and their families. Our intervention includes enabling better access to government social schemes covering food, health, safety, security, and financial inclusion.

In the pilot phase, the initiative will impact 3,000 waste pickers and their families in Mumbai and Delhi.

Bin Boy

Our 'Bin Boy' campaign aims to inspire individuals to segregate household waste at source and ensure that waste stays out of the environment and in the circular economy. The campaign through its child protagonist ‘Appu,’ aims to drive behaviour change among citizens and urge them to segregate waste.

Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF)

Hindustan Unilever Foundation and its partners work in thousands of villages to support and amplify scalable solutions that can help address India’s water challenges.

Since 2010, we have:

Created a water potential of more than 1.9 trillion litres

(Till financial year 2020-21)

Reached over
10,000 villages

Helped achieve over
1.3 million tonnes of agricultural and biomass production

Enhanced livelihoods by generating
60 million person days of employment

Protect and regenerate nature

We continue to work towards a deforestation-free supply chain and
restoring the health of our planet.

Our People and Nature Policy enhances supplier requirements around no deforestation and human rights for our key commodities

Our Regenerative Agriculture Principles guide our suppliers and farmers, including smallholders, on how to nourish soil and water, capture carbon and restore land

Sustainable sourcing

Since we use a variety of raw materials to make our brands,
it is essential that we secure a sustainable supply of these materials.

Tea
68%

Tea purchased from sustainable sources

Tomatoes
93%

Tomatoes for Kissan
ketchup sustainably
sourced

Paper and board
98%

Paper and board for packaging is sourced from mills certified sustainable by Forest Stewardship Council