CSR practices of Unilever

1. CSR practices of Unilever

Shalamberidze S., BMN-156

2. Methodology:

• Analysis of recourses & company’s data
• Analysis of case study

3. About the company:

• 3rd largest consumer products company
• 169 000 employees
• Stakeholders include consumers, employees, investors, suppliers,
and communities
• Main focus of CSR - climate change; food security; water,
sanitation & hygiene

4. Unilever brands (400):

5. History of the company:

• In the early 1870s, at the Netherlands, Jurgens and Van
den Bergh become interested in a new product made
from beef fat and milk – margarine (1898 – Vitello)
• 1884 - Lever & Co starts producing Sunlight soap (1890 Lever Brothers Ltd.)
• 1886 - Knorr launches soup tablets with meat extract
• 1904 - Lever Brothers launch Vim, one of the first
scouring powders
• 1913 - Leading businesses in Europe join forces to create
the Whale Oil Pool
• 1927 - Jurgens and Van den Bergh create Margarine
Unie - the Margarine Union
• 1929 - Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie sign an
agreement to create Unilever

6. CSR practices of Unilever

Positive
Negative
• Alternative ways of testing products
• 600 workers in India over mercury
exposure from a now closed
thermometer plant
• Program “perfect villages,” (1,000
rural communities promotes
products through programs around
hygiene)
• In 2008 - “handwashing day” in
more than 50 countries
• Meet high standards (In 2016
Unilever updated its palm oil
sourcing policy)
• Abuses of workers on Unilever’s
Kenyan estate, including sexual
harassment and poor housing
conditions
• Unilever is accused of failing to
declare zero tolerance against
land grabs, crushing poverty and
exploitation of women farmers and
agricultural workers.

7. Why?

The goal was to double revenues from $40 billion to $80 billion
Oxfam’s findings, published in 2013, showed that factories routinely ignored
Unilever’s stated principles, including Polman’s dictate of paying workers
decently
So even it was promised not to use palm oil from cleared forests, company was
not able to stop the deforestation

8. References

• Unilever official website – Our position on [E-source] – URL:
https://www.unilever.ru/about/our-position-on/ (Date of
access: 11.09.2017)
Unilever official website – Official documents [E-source] –
URL:
https://www.unilever.ru/Images/3infolabor12article_tcm1315
-485039_ru.pdf (Date of access: 12.09.2017)
• Forbes – Unilever and the failure of CSR [E-source] – URL:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/econostats/2017/03/15/unilev
er-and-the-failure-of-corporate-socialresponsibility/#51d774c3498d (Date of access: 07.09.2017)
• The Guardian –Oxfam multinational companies failing CSR
[E-source] – URL: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainablebusiness/oxfam-multinational-companies-failing-csr (Date of
access: 07.09.2017)
• Sustaincase – Case study. How Unilever is acting on climate
change by eliminating deforestation [E-source] – URL:
https://sustaincase.com/case-study-how-unilever-is-actingon-climate-change-by-eliminating-deforestation-2/ (Date of
access: 11.09.2017)