Yes, our Responsible Partner Policy (RPP) outlines mandatory supplier requirements for ethical and sustainable business practices. It reflects our commitment to responsible, transparent, and sustainable operations, central to our core sustainable business strategy. In addition to RPP, The Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Code (SAC) and the Unilever Regenerative Agriculture Principles (RAPs) also provide the basis for our sustainable sourcing programme. The Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Code (SAC) presents best practices for farming, utilised by hundreds of thousands of farmers since 2010 for sustainable operations and Unilever Regenerative Agriculture Principles guide soil nourishment, carbon capture, and land restoration. These principles inspire our business, brands, suppliers, and peers, forming the foundation for regenerative programmes in our supply chain.

In our revised Sustainable Sourcing programme, we concentrate on 12 key crops and agricultural commodities, prioritising their significance to our business and brands.

48.1%* of key crops were sourced sustainably.

These crops include tea, palm oil, paper and board, cereal, sugar, dairy, cocoa, coconut oil, soy, starches, and vegetables & herbs, comprising more than two-third of our agricultural raw material volumes. Through focused programmes, we have achieved sustainable sourcing for 94% of our total paper and board, 81% of our total tomatoes and 79% of our total tea procured during the calendar year 2023.

81%

Sustainable sourcing of tomatoes

79%

Sustainable sourcing of tea

94%

Sustainable sourcing of paper and board

* This indicator is for Calendar Year 2023 which consists of percentage of inputs sourced sustainably for 12 key crops.

Yes, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is applicable to HUL, and we comply with the prevailing EPR rules and regulations. Our waste collection plan aligns with the EPR guidelines and the plan submitted to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). W.e.f. FY 2023-24, we have been registered on the CPCB online portal dedicated to EPR Credit exchange and ensure timely submissions of our plastic footprint and corresponding EPR credits purchased.

Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) on our products are conducted by our Parent Company i.e. Unilever plc, either internally with in-house LCA experts or with the help of external partners and in compliance with ISO 14040. Unilever applies internationally accepted impact assessment methods, such as the harmonised life cycle impact assessment method (ReCiPe) and the European International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD 2011) midpoint methods for studying the environmental impacts of a product – from the sourcing of raw materials to product manufacture, distribution, consumer use and safe disposal.

Unilever conducts an annual simplified LCA exercise on representative products across 14 countries, including India. The methodology is consistent with ISO 14040 and was recognised by the UNEP as one of the finest examples of an organisational LCA.

In 2022, we used a simplified LCA to map the carbon footprint of our products. The analysis was conducted to understand the key challenges to achieve Net Zero emissions for all our products from sourcing to point of sale. A key area of focus was the raw material footprint (Scope 3 emissions – purchased goods), which is related to the emissions from our suppliers and their corresponding feedstocks. We have also included the impact of packaging, inbound and outbound logistics (including retail-related emissions) and disposal of the products (post-consumer use, i.e., biodegradation of chemicals and incineration of plastic packaging).

Unilever is co-funding a second LCA on sustainable palm oil and the World Foods Life Cycle Database Initiative. Unilever is a sponsor of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Life Cycle Initiative (LCI), which aims to support the application of LCA for policymaking and decision-making.

We have conducted a detailed analysis to identify inherent ESG risks for our business, considering issues significant to our stakeholders. And the key risks identified, inter alia, are climate change, water management, packaging and waste, and sustainable sourcing. Our Life Cycle Assessments have highlighted Scope 3 emissions as a notable factor in our overall emissions footprint.

Raw material sourcing and production represents a significant contribution to the total life cycle impact of our products. The GHG emissions from the production of our key forest-risk commodities (i.e. palm oil, paper and board, tea, soy and cocoa) arise from land use change (e.g. deforestation), agricultural practices and downstream processing and hence our focus is on using non-deforestation materials – including in the case of palm, for example, NDP (No deforestation, no use of peat land).

In our Home Care business, we are committed to reducing our virgin fossil-based ingredients in our formulations by using renewable and recycled carbon sources. We are working closely with our strategic suppliers and bringing pathbreaking innovations through our Small and Medium Enterprises ecosystem. For example, we partnered with Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals and Fertilisers Limited (TFL) and Carbon Clean Solutions Limited (CCSL) who have developed cutting-edge technologies to capture the CO₂ from the use of energy in their production processes and turn it into a type of soda ash which is significantly low in its GHG impact compared to normally produced soda ash/Sodium Carbonate. Soda ash is a key ingredient in our detergent products like Rin, Wheel, Surf and Vim.

Sustainable palm
Soap bars comprising more than 80% soap molecules (>70% TFM – Total Fatty Matter) account for a large part of the palm footprint in non-edible usage. Ensuring availability and managing the environmental impacts of increased oil consumption are challenges faced by the soap industry today. Our R&D is committed to and has developed novel and proprietary technologies to manufacture soap bars that meet the desired functionality, while reducing the palm footprint significantly, and helping address climate change through lowering greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of our products. Further, from a consumer point of view, these products allow for better affordability and sensory properties, which are desired by consumers. Today, soap bar manufacturers mainly use palm oil as the source of fatty acids, and these are grown in Southeast Asia, Central & West Africa, and Central America. Palm oil plantations are under increasing scrutiny for their effects on the environment, including deforestation, leading to loss of carbon-sequestration, biodiverse forest land as well as use of peat land for cultivation releasing large quantities of GHG into the atmosphere. There is also concern over the displacement and disruption of human & animal populations and exploitation of indigenous populations due to palm oil cultivation. In 2024, Unilever will target to both move to 100% NDP (No deforestation, no peat land use) Palm and also reduce the palm oil usage in its soap bars thereby affording a significant sustainability and positive consumer impact.

Water
With regard to the use of water in the life cycle of our products, the consumer use phase represents the majority of our product’s water footprint (i.e., detergent products). Our product innovations include the launch of detergent products (e.g, Surf excel Quick wash powder) that are designed to address the quantum of water requirement in the consumer use phase. The breakthrough product technology allows automatic foam reduction during the rinse stage of the handwashing process, thereby reducing the amount of water required for rinsing.

Plastic packaging needs to be recycled in environmentally friendly ways to build a circular economy. We have set ambitious targets to ramp up the use of recycled plastic and only use reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic packaging (Link).