Reducing our environmental impact

Environmental sustainability science underpins the ambitions of Unilever’s Growth Action Plan 2030 in the focus areas of Climate (towards net zero emissions) and Nature (resilient and regenerative ecosystems).

Safety, Environmental & Regulatory Science (SERS) group scientists work to identify opportunities to minimise the potential environmental impacts of Unilever products or activities, ensuring that they are at the forefront of environmental sustainability science by working in partnership with other experts. This allows us to keep up to date with external developments, harness the latest scientific evidence and create tools to assess current, and predict the future, environmental impacts of products.

Since the 1980s Unilever has been active in applying and further developing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach for application to our products and brands (LCA involves studying the environmental impacts of a product – from the sourcing of raw materials, such as via mining or agriculture, to product manufacture, distribution, consumer use and disposal). We have proactively shared our LCA approach and knowledge through publications.

Pioneering thinking to support transformational change

The drive for transformational change focuses on addressing big issues that matter the most to our business and to the world, such as Climate and Nature. To understand how product innovation and ingredient sourcing affect these issues we are developing new scientific methodologies and modelling approaches. 

For example, we are developing approaches to better estimate the biodiversity impacts of how land is used and managed. This supports business decisions on using more renewable and bio-based materials.

The evolution of our life cycle approach

• 1980s – We started using life cycle assessments for key products, tailoring existing approaches to our business, and developing impact assessment methodology.
• 1990s – We expanded this capability to explore and publish an Overall Business Impact Assessment that considered economic and environmental impacts.
• 2000s – We continued to develop our approaches and assessments through the development of our Brand Imprint tool. This assessed the social, economic and environmental impacts of our brands and was the framework for the environmental pillar of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP).
• 2010s – We focused on pioneering footprinting methodologies to support implementation of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan and, in particular, annual greenhouse gas footprinting of over 3000 products and quantifying the benefits of sustainable agriculture and deforestation policies. We also enabled integration of sustainability thinking into innovation through sustainable design insights and ecodesign tools.
• 2020s – We continue to support life cycle informed decision making in our business and the development of new approaches that address biodiversity absolute sustainability assessment. We leverage our scientific capabilities to help our brands improve the environmental sustainability performance of their products.