To thrive, businesses will need to reimagine their roles – not just as companies that manufacture goods and services for people, but as enablers of livelihoods, social equity, equal opportunity, and custodians of conscious consumption.
Sanjiv Mehta
CEO and Managing DirectorTop ESG-rated FMCG company in India
#1 in personal products sector in India and among the top 10% companies globally in our sector
(As per DJSI Year Book 2023)
#16 globally in Household (medium risk) category
(As per DJSI Year Book 2023)
#2 highest ESG-rated FMCG Company in India
(As per DJSI Year Book 2023)
Leadership across all 3 categories, i.e., Climate, Water, and Forest
(As per DJSI Year Book 2023)
Goals and highlights.
Our roadmap for sustainable growth
Our Compass business strategy integrates sustainability within every aspect of our operations. It builds on our past achievements and lays the pathway for us to realise our vision of being the leader in sustainable business. With timebound commitments, we are on our journey to improve the health of our planet, improve the confidence, health and wellbeing of people, and create a more socially inclusive society.
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
Communicate a carbon footprint for 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 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 nonhazardous waste to landfill in our factories
We have made significant progress against our HUL Compass ESG
Goals beginning from our own operations.
Our factory operations
To reduce our environmental footprint, we are investing in new
technologies, switching to renewable sources, and innovating to
transform our factory operations.
Reduction in total energy consumed
(Per tonne of production)
Reduction in CO2 emissions (kg / tonne of production)
Reduction in water usage (m3 / tonne of production)
Reduction in total waste generated (kg / tonne of production)
Against 2008 baseline in manufacturing operations.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from refrigeration
We continue to roll out environmentally friendly freezer cabinets that use Hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants instead of Hydrofluorocarbons refrigerants across India.
1,50,000+
Freezers with HC technology in our fleet
Helping secure our water future
We set up Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF) in 2010 to support and amplify scalable solutions that can help address India’s water challenges - specifically for rural communities that intersect with agriculture. Since inception, along with our partners, we have worked in thousands of villages across India to ensure optimal use of water and create water conservation potential.
To put the impact created by HUF into perspective, the cumulative water potential created by HUF so far is enough to meet the drinking water needs of India’s population for nearly two years.
2.6+
Trillion Litres
Of cumulative water potential created by HUF along with its partners.
1.7
Million Tonnes
of additional agricultural and biomass production achieved.
110
Million
Person days of employment generated.
14,000
Villages
In 13 states and two union Union territories reached.
Plastic waste collection and recovery
We are driving waste management pilots through tie-ups with various companies and NGOs by deploying mass collection, processing and disposal models. We are also helping consumers to understand waste segregation and disposal methods. Through our partners, we collect and safely dispose more plastic than we use in packaging of our products.
1+ Lakh Tonnes
Of plastic waste collected and safely disposed of in 2022
Sustainable packaging
We know that we can make a significant difference to our vision for a waste-free world by reducing our use of virgin plastic for the packaging of our products. We continually evaluate our plastic footprint by following the framework of ‘Less Plastic, Better Plastic, No Plastic.’
We have reduced use of virgin plastic by replacing it with post-consumer recycled plastic for our brands such as Vim, Surf excel, Vaseline, Rin among others and have eliminated plastic from all our soap cartons.
We have also installed 'Smart fill' stations in select modern trade outlets to enable consumers to refill their plastic bottles with our Home Care liquid products.
HUL’s partnerships for a waste free world
As the leading FMCG Company in India, we remain committed to creating a waste free world and are actively working with our partners.
92 Lakh
Students reached by school interventions
27 Lakh
Students reached digitally
In order to create a plastic waste circular economy, we recognise the imperative need for behaviour change. To advocate and create awareness in the area of waste management, we have partnered with Xynteo India Private Limited and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For instance, a curriculum called ‘Waste No More’ developed by us in partnership with Xynteo, aims to create awareness and drive behaviour change on waste segregation and recycling among school children.
Along with UNDP India, we have set up end-to-end waste management projects called ‘Swachhata Kendras’ in Mumbai to effectively manage waste right from collection to segregation and recycling, including behaviour change in communities. Working with 1000+ Safai Saathis, the initiative is currently active in four wards in Mumbai and reaches out to more than 100,000 households for collecting and segregating dry waste.
1,00,000+
households reached for collecting and
segregating dry waste
1000+
Safai Saathis onboarded
Creating a more environment-friendly product line
Guided by our ‘Clean Future’ agenda, we are progressing on our journey towards a more environment-friendly product line.
Our water-saving formulations in laundry help reduce the water needed for rinsing clothes at consumer end. We are also working to ensure that our laundry products for example Surf excel liquids are formulated with biodegradable actives and packaged in bottles that are made of 70% recycled plastic and are 100% recyclable. We have also partnered with ‘Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals and Fertilisers Limited’ to explore opportunities for Soda Ash using Carbon-Capture technology, which is a key raw material for our laundry products.
Nature is vital to our business, and we have devised a focused strategy to protect and regenerate the land, forests, and water systems that we rely upon.
Our efforts to protect and regenerate nature will increase our
capacity to reduce
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, increase biodiversity, and protect
water systems,
within and beyond our own value chain.
Each year, we buy large quantities of raw materials and packaging materials to make our products. Through focussed interventions, we are working to reach 100% sustainable sourcing of our key crops.
Tomatoes for Kissan ketchup
sustainably sourced
Tea purchased from sustainable sources
Chicory sourced from farmers covered under the Unilever Agriculture code
Paper and board for packaging certified as sustainable