Our Positive Beauty vision for people and planet

We are building a global portfolio of brands that are inclusive and care for all skin, hair and body types, championing the diversity of beauty.

We’re committed to ending any digital alteration to change a person’s body shape, size, proportion or skin colour, across all advertising material, and we’re increasing the number of advertisements portraying people from diverse groups.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

We want to see a society where everyone is treated equally. We're working to create a fairer, more socially inclusive world.

We’re saying no to normal. As part of our commitment to challenging narrow beauty ideals, we’ve eliminated the use of the word ‘normal’ across all our Beauty & Wellbeing products and communications, globally.

And we will champion true equity and inclusion in beauty, helping to drive change. Dove’s CROWN Act, which seeks to change legislation and end hair discrimination, is one of our brand-led initiatives in this area.

These actions build on our existing commitment to evolve our skin care portfolio to embrace a more inclusive vision of beauty.

We’re continuing our work to champion gender equity through the three areas where we can have the greatest impact: our advertising, our brand programmes and brand advocacy.

Through our advertising, we’re addressing gender bias and harmful gender stereotypes.

In our brand-led education and behaviour-change programmes, we are addressing the challenges experienced and barriers faced by women and other under-represented groups. Such brand programmes are providing access to resources to build skills or financial support as well as building confidence.

Sunsilk’s work to help girls to act independently and make their own free choices, for example, and Glow & Lovely’s careers initiative which supports women and girls in accessing education and professional training. Such brand programmes are providing access to resources to build skills or financial support as well as building confidence.

In advocacy, we’re stepping up our efforts to influence progression and effect lasting change in systems, culture, and law, for example through the Dove Self-Esteem Project.

We’re ensuring that more people have access to our programmes and products that can help support their physical health and mental wellbeing. And we’re working with partner organisations to expand our programmes and reach.

We’ve got strong foundations to build upon. We will continue with our long-established work in improving people’s health such as The Vaseline Healing Project, which helps heal skin through donations of Vaseline products, healing missions and training for local healthcare workers. We are also expanding our focus into new wellbeing areas with brands such as Clear focusing on improving mental health, and Liquid I.V., helping hydrate those in need.

As part of our aim not only to do less harm but also to do more good, we are committed to helping protect and regenerate 1.5 million hectares of land, forests and oceans by 2030. This is more land than we use to grow the renewable ingredients included across our beauty and personal care product portfolio.

Our Beauty and Wellbeing brands are investing in Unilever’s €1 billion Climate & Nature Fund – an initiative launched in 2020 as part of company-wide actions to fight climate change and protect nature. This money will be used to take decisive, meaningful action with projects likely to include landscape restoration, reforestation, carbon sequestration, wildlife protection and water preservation.

And business-wide, we’re committed to a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023, and to making our product formulations biodegradable by 2030, minimising their impact on water and aquatic ecosystems.

As part of Unilever’s global commitment to closing the loop on plastic, we’re contributing towards removing more than 100,000 tonnes of plastic from our packaging entirely by 2025 and ensuring that any plastic we do use is recyclable, reusable or compostable.

Among the changes we made in 2020, Dove, our biggest Beauty & Wellbeing brand, switched to 100% recycled bottles across Europe and North America. Love Beauty and Planet also launched concentrated shampoos and conditioners which provide as many uses as standard bottles but require only half as much plastic packaging.

We’re working on refillable, reusable packaging too – launching pilot programmes around the world to test viability, learn from results and refine our approach.

At Unilever, we believe in using science, not animals, to assess product safety.

Unilever is recognised by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) as a company working for regulatory change, and we support calls for a worldwide ban on animal testing for cosmetics by 2023.

We’re working alongside lawmakers, animal protection organisations and like-minded companies and brands to drive this change, sharing the expertise we’ve gained in more than 40 years of pioneering alternatives to animal testing.

We believe people have a right to know how the products they choose and use are made. Over 25 of our Beauty & Wellbeing brands are now PETA-approved, including Dove, our biggest brand. Through our brands, we are raising consumer awareness and continuing to advocate for positive change and adopt approaches that provide greater transparency and deepen trust in our brands and business.