Unilever South Africa: 90+ Years of doing good

Unilever South Africa: 90+ Years of doing good

Unilever is a global company selling fast-moving consumer goods. Our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace. Purpose is central to our business approach, and we have also seen firsthand how brands with purpose grow, companies with purpose last, and people with purpose thrive.

Back in 1883, Sunlight Soap was launched in the UK by our founder – a pioneering innovation which had a purpose to popularise cleanliness and bring it within reach of ordinary people. Sustainable living, even then and now with over 400 brands, we are still driven by purpose.

Our vision is to grow our business, whilst decoupling our environmental footprint from our growth and increasing our positive social impact. We want to do more good for our planet and our society and act on the social and environmental issues facing the world, enhancing people’s lives with our products.

As a business, we aim to push our business the way business is done – further than ever before. Our Unilever Compass strategy sets out how we will make that ambition a reality. The Unilever Compass puts serving our stakeholders at the heart of everything we do. It reinforces the non-negotiable importance of respect for human rights and it sets out ambitious programmes of action to tackle the most critical issues of our time, harnessing the full scale and impact of our brands and going further and faster through stretching time-bound targets that drive positive change.

RAISING LIVING STANDARDS

Our ambition is to improve living standards for low-paid workers worldwide. We will therefore ensure that everyone who directly provides goods and services to Unilever earns at least a living wage or income, by 2030. We will work with our suppliers, other businesses, governments and NGOs – through purchasing practices, collaboration and advocacy – to create systemic change and global adoption of living wage practices.

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH INCLUSIVITY

In addition to improving living standards through economic inclusion, it is also critical that we create more opportunities for people from under-represented groups – both within and outside our organisation. Diversity in the workplace directly results in improved financial performance through its capacity to foster innovation, creativity and empathy.

Within our organisation, we will achieve an equitable culture through progressive policies and practices which eliminate bias and discrimination. We are proud to have already achieved gender balance across our management globally, but there is more work to do – for women, and for other people. Through a new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy, we are removing barriers and bias in recruitment, establishing leadership accountability for supporting all our employees to excel in their roles, and aiming to achieve a workforce that is representative of the population in the countries where we operate.

We also want to use the strength of our brands, and our position as the second largest advertiser in the world, to drive change. We have committed to increase the number of advertisements that include people from diverse groups, both onscreen and behind the camera. We will help tackle the prevalence of stereotypes that are often perpetuated through advertising and promote a more inclusive representation of people.

PREPARING PEOPLE FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK

Beyond our organisation, our ambition is to help equip 10 million young people with essential skills to prepare them for job opportunities, by 2030. By investing in skills-building and providing work experience opportunities for young people, we will drive growth, and accelerate digital capabilities; building expertise and increasing productivity. We are working with partners on LevelUp – a youth employability platform – to provide a onestop shop for young people to discover their purpose, get access to training, volunteering and work experiences. We will also grow our apprenticeship schemes around the world, and work with our suppliers and distributors, to build vocational skills and share job opportunities, to help young people to get into work.

ADDRESS: 15 Nollsworth Cresent, Durban North, South AfricaTEL: 031 570 2000/3000EMAIL: consumer.affairs-za@unilever.com