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Managing our environmental impacts
After more than a decade of action, we continue to make progress on managing the environmental impacts of our own operations. In some areas, our impacts extend far beyond our own operations. For example, while since 1995 we have more than halved the amount of water we use in our manufacturing (per tonne of production), this still only accounts for less than 5% of the water use in the total lifecycle of our products.
On the 'upstream' side, ie in our supply chain, we use our Business Partner Code to ensure that our suppliers meet our expectations on environmental and social impacts. With over two-thirds of our raw materials coming from agriculture, our Sustainable Agriculture Programme has a key role in managing our upstream impacts.
On the 'downstream' side – when consumers use our products – we work in partnership with various organisations and engage with consumers to achieve improvements in our wider environmental footprint, for example on water use. Our research and product development teams also aim to reduce the environmental impacts of our products during consumer use through reformulation and other innovations.


Consumer communications
We are guided by four principles in our communications with consumers.
• we are committed to building trust through responsible practices and through transparent communication – both directly to consumers and indirectly through other key stakeholders and thought-leaders
• it is our responsibility to ensure that our products are safe and that we provide clear information on their use and any risks that are associated with their use
• we fully support a consumer's right to know what is in our products and will be transparent in terms of ingredients, nutrition values and the health and beauty properties of our products
• we will use a combination of channels, which includes product labels, websites, carelines and/or consumer leaflets to communicate openly with our consumers
Nutrition labelling
We are committed to providing information to consumers to enable them to make informed choices. This means transparency on the nutrition values of our food products through on-pack labelling, telephone carelines and websites.
We continue to work with national governments, retailers and other partners on how best to promote better information. In response to growing public demand in some markets for improved nutritional labelling of food products, we are working to provide clear, simple information for consumers.
In May 2006 the Choices programme was launched. It uses a front-of-pack stamp to make it easier for consumers to identify healthier options – foods and drinks that are in line with internationally accepted dietary advice for fat, sugar and salt. The front-of pack stamp is complemented by back-of pack nutrition information. Following the launch in the US, Netherlands and Belgium in 2006, we plan to roll it out to all our major markets by the end of 2007. Over a third of products already qualify. The programme is open for our partners in the food chain and will be governed by an independent Foundation.
This independent Choices International Foundation is being established with responsibility for overseeing the use of the Choices stamp. The aim is for Choices to become an independent, international standard used across the food industry with its qualifying criteria regularly reviewed by an independent, international committee of food and nutrition scientists.
In addition, we are participating in a voluntary CIAA (Confederation of Food and Drink Industries of the European Union) nutritional labelling initiative which complements Choices.
Under this initiative, on the back of all our packs we will show the levels of eight key nutrients (energy, protein, carbohydrates, sugars, fat, saturates, fibre and sodium) per 100gm/ml, and four of these (energy, total fat, sugar and salt) as percentages of guideline daily amounts (GDA). We will also show calories on the front of packs as a percentage of GDA.


Unilever's use of packaging materials


Our packaging must be both functional and attractive while keeping the impact on the environment as low as possible. We are working to make this aspect of our business more sustainable. There are five key elements to our approach
• Remove: to eliminate, where possible, unnecessary layers of packaging such as outer cartons and shrink-wrap film – an area where our retail customers are increasingly setting reduction targets.
• Reduce: to reduce packages to the optimal size and weight for their contents.
• Reuse: to reuse packaging from the materials we receive at our factories.
• Renew: to maximise the proportion of packaging from renewable resources and to investigate the technical feasibility of biodegradable and compostable materials. In 2004, 83% of our European paper-based packaging came from sustainable sources.
• Recycle: to increase the use of recycled, recyclable and single-material components in packaging for easy sorting and recycling at the end of its use.
The Unilever Packaging Group leads the development of our strategies on sustainable packaging. The Group is studying how we develop and specify our packaging to minimise impact on the environment.
As these issues affect the whole consumer goods industry, we work in partnership with industry and stakeholder groups to explore joint action. We continue to work with the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a group of over 50 companies, comprising packaging producers, users and retailers.
Recycling packaging
In Brazil, our brands Knorr, AdeS, Omo and Rexona are working in partnership with supermarket Pão de Açúcar to promote CEMPRE, a packaging recycling scheme for shoppers. Since the launch of this award-winning project in 2001, 101 recycling stations have been established in 18 cities, working in partnership with 15 rag-picker co-operatives to recycle nearly 15 000 tonnes of packaging.
Reducing packaging
• The redesign of our Suave shampoo bottles in the US has allowed an annual saving in plastic resin of almost 150 tonnes. This is the equivalent of 15 million fewer shampoo bottles being thrown away each year.
• By eliminating an outer carton from our Knorr vegetable mix and creating a new shipping and display box, we halved the packaging, resulting in 280 fewer pallets and six fewer trucks a year to transport the same quantity.
• Reducing the width of the outer box of Lipton soup cartons saved 154 tonnes of card

Our approach
During 2006 we continued the process of restructuring our business to improve competitiveness and support our growth strategy. The new structure is simpler and supports faster decision-making through a streamlined executive. Since 2004, we have reduced our senior management headcount by around 30%.
As a result of this restructuring and further divestments, the number of people we employed fell by around 27 000, a reduction of 13%. The sale of our tea plantations in India accounted for 18 000 of these, and the sale of the majority of our frozen foods business in Europe for a further 3 000.
In 2006 we also signed a seven-year outsourcing contract with Accenture to handle all transaction processing and administration support services for our human resources function.
In implementing our restructuring programmes we seek to act with integrity and follow agreed consultation processes. We aim to treat those affected fairly – and help them to find alternative employment if redundancy is necessary. From employee consultation, we recognise that this level of organisational change is a source of concern. We take these concerns seriously and throughout the process we communicate regularly to ensure that people understand what is happening.
Diversity & inclusion
Between 2000 and 2006, the proportion of women in management increased from 25% to 33%. We have 24 nationalities among our 123 most senior managers. In 2006 our Global Diversity Board, led by our Group Chief Executive, set up detailed diversity monitoring to track the progress of our diversity initiatives.
Health & safety
Our goal is the elimination of all employee and contractor fatalities with continual improvements in overall health and safety performance. Our internal global health and safety standards are based on the international standard OHSAS 18001.
Our total recordable accident frequency rate fell from 0.39 in 2005 to 0.33 in 2006. However, most regrettably, five employees and two contractors lost their lives. All employee fatalities resulted from car accidents. The lessons learnt from these incidents were communicated throughout the organisation.
Safe travel and transport therefore remain a priority area. The greatest challenge we face is in countries that lack basic road safety infrastructure and enforcement. During 2006, Safe Driving Teams were set up in our local companies. Led by a senior manager, these teams are now implementing country specific action plans.

Fatal accidents* 1996–2006

Accident rate** 1996–2006

Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) – Workplace accidents resulting in time off work or some temporary restriction in the work that the injured person can undertake.
Total Recordable Frequency Rates (TRFR) – All workplace accidents, excluding only those that require simple first aid treatment.
Investing in people
In line with our new business priorities, in 2006 we continued to strengthen the capabilities of our leadership teams and those working in consumer marketing and customer development. For example, the marketing function ran nearly 500 training sessions in 2006 covering around 40% of people in marketing. A new global approach to learning was designed to develop general leadership and professional skills, which we will roll out to all managers during 2007.
In 2006 we also introduced our People Vitality programme to enhance the personal well-being and effectiveness of our people at work. Hindustan Lever initiated a programme which assesses employees' body mass, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It also provides nutrition, health and exercise advice. Over 10 000 employees have taken part so far, and each will be followed up annually.
Several leadership teams – including the Unilever Executive – also took part in a well-being programme. Each received an individual health check, which was then used to design a personal plan to improve their nutrition, fitness and mental resilience.
Action on HIV/AIDS
We have long-standing HIV/AIDS support programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, and in 2006 our Kericho tea estate in Kenya won the Excellence in the Workplace award from the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS. Building on our work in Africa, we have implemented a more comprehensive approach to programme development in other regions too, with a particular focus on a number of Asian countries.
In September 2006, following a successful 12-month pilot of a scheme involving Unilever and four other multinationals, the World Economic Forum published its 'Guidelines to Protect your Supply Chain', outlining ways for businesses to work with smaller suppliers on awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
Living our values
Each year, country chairmen provide positive assurance that their business adheres to our Code of Business Principles. The Code provides a clear set of ethical guidelines to enable employees to uphold our business integrity. Our prohibition against the giving or receiving of bribes is absolute. Moreover, we make clear that no employee will be penalised for any loss of business resulting from the rejection of bribery. The Code is communicated to all employees and translated into 47 languages, with processes in place to raise concerns and report breaches. In 2006, we dismissed 68 people (compared to 66 in 2005) for breaches of our Code.
We abide by core ILO labour standards and our Code sets out requirements on protecting labour rights. In 2006 we surveyed our 35 largest businesses which showed that our youngest employees, aged 15, are in Germany, Switzerland and the US, compliant with local legislation.
In all these countries, wages paid by Unilever exceed the minimum wage established by the relevant national authority. 40% of our eligible employees are members of trade unions.
Age of youngest employees 2006
Based on our 35 largest businesses.
Age Country
15 Germany, Switzerland, United States
16 United Kingdom
17 China, South Africa
18 Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic,
France, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands,
Spain, Sweden, Turkey
* In addition to the recordable fatality data in the chart, where such accidents may be deemed associated with our operations, Unilever requires its organisations to report fatal accidents involving members of the public, and those which occur at third-party contract manufacturers where they are producing goods and services for Unilever.
In common with the other companies in our industrial sector, these incidents are only reportable internally.
** In line with industry best practice, we include in our definition of an 'employee', temporary staff and contractors who work under our direct supervision.