For Unilever, globally, sustainability has always been integral to their way of doing business. In November 2010, Unilever launched the Sustainable Living Plan, which put sustainability at the heart of their business strategy. The central objective of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan was to decouple their growth from their environmental footprint, while at the same time increase their positive social impact.

The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan represented a long-term goal for the whole of Unilever. Hindustan Unilever was making sustainable growth a reality on the ground.

The target audience for this report were vast and varied: global and local sustainability key opinion formers like sustainability specialists, NGOs, think-tanks, corporate sustainability practitioners, specialist governmental and international agencies, investors, journalists, corporate key opinion formers, government ministers, civil servants, local and national politicians, customers, academics, consumer and business groups, and all internal employees.

This report had to give all stakeholders an overview of the global targets as well as highlight the progress Hindustan Unilever was making in India.The report had to act as a one-stop source for local examples which demonstrated what was happening in India to help deliver the global USLP goals.

To highlight the progress made by Hindustan Unilever, we created a uniform structure and look for the report based on the global template. Since the USLP was Unilever’s business model for sustainable growth, the report focused on activities that were core to its business, and highlighted the targets that had been achieved at the local level through real examples and proof points.