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 Principle (SAP) and the Unilever Regenerative Agriculture Principles (RAPs) also provide the basis for our sustainable sourcing programme. The Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Principle (SAP) 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 programs in our supply chain.

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

We believe that certification is one of the vital ways to drive positive change in agricultural supply chains. We are India’s largest tea business and a founding member of trustea (Link), the Indian tea industry collaboration on sustainability.

The RPP and Sustainable Agriculture Principle and Regenerative Agriculture Principles (RAPs) are hosted on our website at Link

There are mainly two categories of material that are reclaimed:

a) Damaged and expired finished goods: There is a comprehensive standard operating procedure (SOP) for safely handling and disposing of expired/ damaged stocks returned from the market and depots. These goods are either safely disposed of or recycled or reused.

b) Plastic waste as part of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): We follow the new national EPR Framework notified by CPCB that has become operational since Apr 2023 wherein an EPR wallet credit system has been created by CPCB. We undertake EPR credit purchases based on our plastic footprint / consumption and fully meet the EPR obligation.

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 (LCAs) of our products are conducted by our Parent Company (Unilever PLC), either internally with in-house LCA experts or by external partners and in compliance with ISO 14040. Unilever applies internationally accepted impact assessment methods, such as the IPCC 2021 GWP100, ReCiPe and the European Commission’s Environmental Footprint (EF) for quantifying the environmental impacts of a product – from the sourcing of raw materials to product manufacture, distribution, consumer use and disposal.

Unilever conducts an annual GHG footprinting (i.e., LCA focused on climate change impact category) exercise for representative products across 13 countries, including India. The methodology is consistent with ISO 14040.

Additionally, each year, Unilever assesses its corporate GHG emissions through a corporate LCA focused on climate change, using a top-down approach (utilising material flow analysis - MFA) enabling reporting on its mid-term 2030 SBTi targets and its 2039 Net Zero target.

In 2022, LCA was used to understand the key challenges to achieve our Net Zero target for all our products from sourcing to point of sale. A key area of focus was the raw materials footprint, which is related to the emissions from our suppliers. We 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 treatment of packaging).

In 2024, Unilever commissioned an annual LCA model representing its palm oil sourcing, and HUL together with the Indian Tea Research Association (TRA) commissioned an LCA of tea production in India.

Unilever has provided funding towards development of the World Foods Life Cycle Database, and is still among the key users and partners of this initiative, owned and managed by an external LCA consultancy. Unilever is a sponsor of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Life Cycle Initiative (LCI), which aims to support the application of LCA for policy and wider 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, waste management, resource use and circularity, biodiversity and ecosystem health and water scarcity and use. 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).

Aligned with Unilever’s climate action transition plan to achieve net zero across our value chain by 2039, we are working closely with our supplier partners, industry associations, regulatory bodies, and the government to foster a supportive ecosystem and implement the necessary changes.

Plastic Circularity
We are rethinking innovative solutions to redesign our packaging by cutting down the use of virgin plastic and replacing by post-consumer recycled (PCR) resins Link. Over the past five years, we have been at the forefront fostering recyclers, nurturing startups, and championing sustainable practices. In a groundbreaking collaboration with Banyan Nation, we achieved a significant milestone by incorporating PCR into shampoo bottles for the first time and since then have been expanding PCR inclusion across all Brands. As one of the early adopters, we have incorporated recycled plastic into our packaged food business following the r-PET regulation unlock (e.g., Kissan Squash).

We have also announced acquisition of stake in recycled flexible plastics firm Lucro Plastecycle Private Limited, taking ahead our partnership. With their expertise in flexibles, we were able to pioneer PCR in flexibles packaging. These collaborative approaches not only mark pivotal moments in sustainable packaging but also promotes the growth of its supply chain partners and fosters innovation within the industry. Over 25 of our brands use PCR, to name a few like Vim Dishwash, Surf excel, Comfort, Vaseline, Dove, Sunsilk etc.

To sustain the transitions from non-recyclable to recyclable design, practical and cost-efficient solutions are imperative. Our strategy to achieve cost-efficient solution are effective e-tendering, developing alternate feedstock suppliers and convertors, one structure to achieve scale benefit and digitization.

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).