Independent assurance

Our approach to assurance

We need accurate and robust data on our sustainability performance to help us make decisions, monitor performance and report progress to our stakeholders. Third-party assurance is a key part of our approach to ensure the rigour of our reporting. Our assurance plan is approved by the Unilever Board’s Audit Committee each year.

Independent assurance in 2023

For the 2023 reporting period, we reappointed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) to provide independent assurance for the twelfth consecutive year. PwC’s assurance engagement was in accordance with ISAE 3000 (Revised), and in respect of the greenhouse gas emissions, in accordance with ISAE 3410. They also applied the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) Code of Ethics.

PwC’s scope was to provide limited assurance of our Environmental and Occupational Safety performance measures and selected sustainability performance measures: climate, nature, plastics, livelihoods and additional non-financial metrics.

The environmental performance measures assured were chosen because they reflect the main environmental aspects for our manufacturing sites, including utilities consumption (electricity, gas, water), and waste generated, as well as GHG emissions and water pollution. Occupational safety measures were chosen because safety at work is an important priority for our business.

Ensuring rigorous reporting

Beyond independent assurance, we have a number of processes to ensure that the information we report is accurate and provides a fair representation of our sustainability performance.

We established a Metrics Team to provide strategic oversight of our sustainability metrics and to ensure the rigour of our measurement practices. The Metrics Team includes senior management representatives from Finance and Sustainability.

As well as setting principles for the development and governance of sustainability metrics, the Metrics Team ensures every metric has a metric owner who is a senior expert in the subject. The metric owner is responsible for understanding the activity underlying the metric (such as handwashing practices or greenhouse gas reduction) and its measurement and calculation.

Each quantitative metric is supported by a Basis of Preparation which provides an explanation of how the data is collected and calculated and any assumptions made to ensure a consistent approach year-on-year. Our Reporting archive contains historical Basis of Preparation documents.

Progress against our sustainability metrics is tracked internally on a quarterly basis. At the end of the year, we use a centralised data collection tool to collect data that we intend to report publicly. The tool has been configured to ensure data accuracy, such as electronic validation and algorithms to prevent double counting.

In addition to independent assurance of selected performance measures, our Sustainable Finance team validates the data against the Basis of Preparation using evidence provided by metric owners to ensure that the data we are reporting is accurate.