Dear Stakeholders,

I am pleased to share our Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) for the Financial Year 2024-25. This report aims to update you of our sustainability performance driven by our efforts to create a positive impact on the environment and society.

Our new strategy, ‘ASPIRE: Unlocking a Billion Aspirations’, aims to unlock growth for the business and is underlined by the key pillar of sustainability. We have been driving an ambitious sustainability agenda for decades. Yet, in the face of ever-growing economic, environmental, and social challenges, we are evolving our approach. Now is the time to focus on delivering impact by making sustainability progress integral to business performance.

We will continue to focus on four sustainability priorities – Climate, Nature, Plastics, and Livelihoods. We will be scaling our proven models across these pillars to create a larger impact. We truly believe that embracing sustainability is the only way for businesses to remain relevant in the future.

At HUL, we have made significant progress against our ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Goals. In our manufacturing operations, we have reduced our CO₂ emissions by 99% (per tonne of production), water usage by 50% (cubic meter per tonne of production), and total waste generated from our factories by 62% (per tonne of production) in FY 2024-25 compared to the 2008 baseline.

We are targeting net zero emissions across Scope 1, 2, and 3 by 2039. While we are well placed to deliver on Scope 1 & 2 emissions, we are relentlessly working on achieving our commitment on Scope 3 by 2039. This includes working closely with our biggest suppliers across all our categories. As a founding member of the Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Industry Coalition (RECEIC), we aim to meet Net Zero commitments by addressing the use of sustainable raw materials through industry-wide action and government support.

On our journey towards building plastic circularity through our Program “Project Circular Bharat” we have developed a decentralised financially viable model that works in the areas of Behaviour change, Social inclusion of waste workers, and Infrastructure development. We partner with multiple government bodies, other corporates such as SBI Foundation, and organisations such as UNDP and Xynteo on our plastic initiatives. Last year we launched ‘Project Circular India Toolkit’, a first-of-its-kind awareness-to-action toolkit which will help replicate the change across the ecosystem in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Forests, & Climate Change (MoEFCC).

To play our part in securing the future of water we continue to build water conservation potential and enhance water-dependent livelihoods through the Hindustan Unilever Foundation and its partners. Since 2010, we have enabled creation of a cumulative water conservation potential of over 3.9 trillion litres.

Suvidha, our pioneering model of urban hygiene and sanitation centre today serves 5,00,000 people in Mumbai. Our first centre was set up in a slum in Mumbai in 2016 in partnership with the BMC to serve 2,000 people annually. We have now scaled it up to 20 centres across Mumbai in partnership with the government, HSBC India, and JSW Foundation. We have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to provide innovation & design expertise to build climate – resilient sanitation models for Urban India.

Not just the environment, but we have also been working towards creating a positive social impact. Project Shakti, launched at the dawn of the new millennium with the vision of empowering women in rural areas, has been a resounding success. It has been 11 years since we started ‘Prabhat’, our sustainable community development initiative aimed at improving livelihoods, health, and nutrition as well as protecting the environment. Since its inception, Prabhat has positively benefitted 11 million lives across 12 states and 2 union territories.

Sustainability has always been ingrained in the way we do our business and not just a separate initiative. This is because we truly believe that sustainable practices can drive innovation, reduce costs, enhance brand reputation, and create long-term value for shareholders.

We have come a long way in our sustainability journey and going forward we will require bold and decisive leadership to make a meaningful difference.