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Unilever is folding collectively its sustainability and exterior communications departments, months after scaling again its environmental targets as the corporate shifts its sustainability technique.
The maker of Dove cleaning soap and Cornetto ice lotions, which is in the midst of a wide-ranging restructure and cost-cutting programme, will mix the 2 beforehand separate roles of chief sustainability officer and international head of communications and company affairs into one function, in accordance with an inside e-mail to all workers seen by the Monetary Occasions.
Since chief government Hein Schumacher got down to flip round Unilever’s efficiency final yr, the corporate that was as soon as seen because the poster little one for moral and environmental points has taken a extra “real looking” method to sustainability, with fewer targets.
“Given the growing extent to which the exterior coverage surroundings impacts our business and sustainability ambitions, I’ve determined to carry company affairs, exterior communications and sustainability collectively beneath one management function,” wrote chief government Hein Schumacher within the replace final week.
Chief sustainability officer Rebecca Marmot, who has a background in company affairs at Unilever, will tackle the accountability for exterior affairs from Paul Matthews, international head of communications & company affairs, who has stepped down from the enterprise. The departments can even merge.
“Company affairs has to place the pursuits of the corporate first, and can subsequently all the time spin accordingly,” stated Jonathon Porritt, who suggested Unilever on sustainability points for 28 years, till March this yr.
“Sustainability, as a operate, ought to all the time be as aware of the pursuits of the world and its individuals as of the corporate. No firm severe about sustainability ought to search to carry these two features collectively,” he added.
Unilever declined to remark.
After 2015’s Paris Settlement, scores of firms set bold local weather targets and sustainability turned extra distinguished in company communications, with teams appointing chief sustainability officers with company affairs backgrounds to supervise the fast-growing operate.
Many shopper items teams have a devoted CSO function, together with Mars, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble. Others mix the function with company affairs, reminiscent of Reckitt and now Unilever, or with provide chains, reminiscent of Diageo.
One marketing consultant acquainted with the corporate stated that whereas it was not a foul thought to merge the 2 features, the brand new function ought to be a part of the corporate’s government committee. “In the event that they don’t have a seat on the desk, then they aren’t impacting, simply executing,” they stated.
In a recent interview with the FT, Schumacher stated Unilever was shifting its focus away from sustainability advocacy to “execution”, including that scaling again its ambitions was not an choice given the rising environmental reporting necessities.
The sustainability technique now could be “inform, not present,” he stated. “I feel it’s extra in tune with the fact,” he stated.
Unilever, which has for over a decade set an instance to its friends on sustainability points, has drawn criticism for its new agenda, which campaigners have warned units a foul precedent for different corporates tempted to again monitor on their ambitions.
The patron items big announced in April that it was introducing a extra “targeted” technique after the chief government concluded a few of the targets set by his predecessors weren’t achievable. The modifications included extending deadlines and lowering the size of environmental targets, reminiscent of its use of virgin plastics and round packaging.
Schumacher informed the FT that the corporate’s spend on sustainability had elevated yr on yr.
“We haven’t taken any greenback out. It’s typically reported that it’s turn out to be much less vital as a result of we’re placing extra emphasis on revenue . . . our spend on sustainability yr on yr is up, not down,” he stated, declining to share numbers.
Unilever just isn’t alone in reassessing its inexperienced agenda. Corporations from Walmart to Shell have dropped or missed their emissions targets and different sustainability objectives. Simply this month, Coca-Cola drew hearth from environmentalists after watering down its reuse and recycling objectives.
At Unilever’s capital markets day final month, when Schumacher set out his motion plan for the subsequent 5 years, he additionally unveiled a brand new firm objective, “to brighten on a regular basis life for all”, to switch the earlier tagline, “to make sustainable residing commonplace”, which was established by former chief government and company sustainability champion Paul Polman.
Schumacher stated that Polman “created consciousness like nobody else” however that the targets he set have been unachievable. “ what? He did the correct factor, as a result of he put the bar so excessive, even when we have been to fulfill 80 per cent of that focus on, we’d have by no means come up to now if he hadn’t achieved that,” he stated.
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