Engaging with stakeholders
Listening to others and learning from our stakeholders informs our decision-making, strengthens our relationships and helps us succeed as a business.
Our approach
Our success as a company depends on good relationships with a broad range of people and organisations who have a stake in our business. With some, such as our customers, employees, suppliers and investors, the relationship is based on direct contact or financial involvement with the business. Others, such as governments and regulators, local communities, civil society organisations, academics and individual concerned citizens, have a wider interest in what we do and in our impacts on society as a whole.
Across all our activities we seek to engage with stakeholders to help us identify issues of concern, guide our reporting and provide feedback on specific areas of activity. Working in partnership is crucial in developing and delivering some of our major sustainability commitments.
Types of engagement
This variety of relationships means we engage in many differing ways, depending on the nature of the interest, the relevance to the business and the most practical way to meet stakeholders' specific needs and expectations. With consumers, for example, our brand teams are in continuous conversation the world over to understand their diverse tastes, needs and trends. We operate consumer-care lines, provide information about our business and brands through websites, and conduct detailed consumer research.
With other stakeholders, for example local governments and civil society organisations, our operating companies, and increasingly our brand teams, have regular meetings, participate in research projects and surveys, and contribute to public policy and special interest group debates. Decisions to engage are made at local or regional level, and the results inform our business decision-making. We focus on issues where we can make a meaningful contribution and have a responsibility to play a particular role which also supports Unilever's business objectives. Generally we find that constructive dialogue, including with those who may hold critical views, helps our understanding of the dilemmas we face in running a business that is seeking to be more sustainable.
Partnerships
Increasingly we are trying to build partnerships that endure over several years with intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations which can undertake practical action as well as inform our understanding of the issues. Our partners bring expertise on specific questions as well as the networks to deliver practical initiatives on the ground. We feel we can be most effective by focusing on a limited number of in-depth partnerships related to our priority issues such as nutrition, hygiene and sustainable resources.
Our principal global partnerships are with:
United Nations World Food Programme: to feed hungry children and improve their nutrition
World Heart Federation: to promote heart health
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition : to co-create new approaches in food fortification to address malnutrition
FDI World Dental Federation: to improve oral health
Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing: to promote handwashing with soap
UNICEF: to combat child mortality through nutrition and hygiene initiatives.
Given that we have operations in around 100 countries and our products are on sale in about 50 more, it is not possible to list all our engagement activity with stakeholders. However we have begun to build a better map of the main external relationships by our operating companies, focused at European and international levels.
Business associations
Our principal business associations – particularly where we are engaged in dialogue with governments and regulators – are set out in the table below.
Unilever memberships: key European & international industry associations & advocacy organisations
| Organisation | Mission/Objectives |
|---|---|
| Association for the Sustainable Use and Recovery of Resources in Europe (ASSURRE) | ASSURRE is a multi-sector coalition that aims to play an important role in transforming Sustainable Resource Management from a concept into a practical process and to work for a better EU legislative framework through better dialogue between all relevant actors and the EU institutions. |
Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) | BASCAP works with the global business community to more efficiently identify and address intellectual property rights issues and petition for greater commitments by local, national and international officials in the enforcement and protection of intellectual property rights. While carrying out these functions BASCAP also works to increase public awareness of the problems and dangers associated with intellectual property right violations. |
| Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) | BIAC is an independent organisation officially recognised by the OECD as being representative of the OECD business community. BIAC's members are the major industrial and employers' organisations in the 30 OECD member countries. Via its 34 standing committees and policy groups, BIAC mirrors all economic policy issues the OECD covers, and their impacts on both member and an increasing number of non-member countries like Russia and China. |
Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA) | CIAA represents the interests of the food and drink industries in Europe. It is committed to an environment where all European food and drink companies can compete effectively for sustainable growth in the context of an enlarged EU and global markets. It does this by contributing to the development of a legislative and economic framework addressing competitiveness, food quality and safety, consumer information and respect for the environment. |
CSR Europe | CSR Europe is a non-profit organisation that promotes corporate social responsibility. Its mission is to help companies achieve profitability, sustainable growth and human progress by placing corporate social responsibility in the mainstream of business practice. In pursuit of its objectives, CSR Europe is committed to a broader stakeholder dialogue between businesses, European policymakers, governments, investors, social partners, civil society and academics. |
European Brands Association [Association des Industries de Marque](AIM) | AIM represents the interests of brand manufacturers and 21 national branding associations. Its mission is to create for brands an environment of fair and vigorous competition, fostering innovation and guaranteeing maximum value to consumers. |
European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) | CEFIC represents around 27 000 large, medium and small chemical companies, which account for nearly a third of world chemical production. Its mission is to maintain and develop a prosperous chemical industry in Europe by promoting the development of workable, proportional, predictable and science-based legislation to ensure the continued competitiveness of the industry. |
European Cosmetics Association (Colipa) | Colipa represents more than 2 000 companies operating in the European cosmetic, toiletry and perfumery industry, which has an annual turnover of €58.1 billion. It is committed to the ongoing development of safe, innovative and effective products and to continuously meeting the demands of consumers through intensive market research and enhanced product information. |
European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN) | EUROPEN brings together companies and national organisations with a common interest in packaging and the environment. It aims to achieve a fully accessible European market for packaging used for packaged products, whereby best use is made of the role, benefits and functions of packaging in society, such as protection of products and the environment and supplying information to and meeting the needs of consumers and customers. |
European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) | The ERT brings together around 45 chief executives and chairmen of major multinational companies of European parentage, covering a wide range of industry and technology sectors. It works to identify important issues related to European competitiveness, analyses critical factors and examines how public policies could facilitate improvements. It works to identify important issues related to European competitiveness, analyses critical factors and examines how public policies could facilitate improvements |
International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products (AISE) | AISE is the official representative body of the soaps, detergents and maintenance products industry in Europe. Its membership totals 37 national associations in 42 countries, covering about 900 companies ranging from small and medium-sized enterprises to large multinationals active both in the consumer goods market and the industrial and institutional sectors. The AISE mission is to communicate effectively and objectively the values of its members to improve the economic and legal environment in which the industry operates. |
International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) | The IBLF is an international non-profit organisation that works to promote responsible business leadership and partnerships for social, economic and environmentally sustainable international development, particularly in new and emerging market economies. Supported by more than 70 of the world's leading companies, the IBLF operates in more than 50 countries around the world in areas such as tourism, health, enterprise development, transparency and corruption, and partnerships. |
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) | The International Chamber of Commerce is the voice of world business. Its work covers a broad spectrum, from arbitration and dispute resolution to making the case for open trade and the market economy. In particular, it seeks to forge internationally agreed rules and standards that companies adopt voluntarily and can be incorporated in binding contracts. As part of its work, the ICC provides business input to the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and many other intergovernmental bodies, both international and regional. |
International Margarine Association of the Countries of Europe (IMACE) | IMACE represents the interests of 21 national margarine associations at European-level. On behalf of its members, it aims to create a regulatory framework both at EU and international level that responds to the needs of margarine manufacturers by working with policymakers, trade associations and other European business groups. |
Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform
| SAI Platform is a platform created by the food industry to actively support the development of and to communicate worldwide about sustainable agriculture involving the different stakeholders of the food chain. SAI Platform supports agricultural practices and agricultural production systems that preserve the future availability of current resources and enhance their efficiency. |
TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) | The TABD is a group of chief executives from American and European companies operating in the United States, Europe and globally, which acts as a unique and effective mechanism for enhanced co-operation between the transatlantic business community and the governments of the US and EU. Its primary goal is to help establish a barrier-free transatlantic market (BFTM) with the freest possible exchange of goods, services and capital. |
Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) | TPN is a non-governmental network of EU and US parliamentarians and corporate members. Its mission is to promote the closest possible partnership between the governments and peoples of the European Union and the United States so as to ensure global security, economic growth and stability and the enhancement of democratic values. |
Union des Industries de la Communauté Européenne (UNICE) | UNICE represents the voice of business in Europe. Its membership comprises national business federations throughout Europe and its mission is to release entrepreneurial energy; boost innovation; unleash the internal market of 25+; improve the functioning of the labour market; make environmental policy more effective and efficient; and foster international trade investment. |
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) | The WBCSD brings together 180 international companies in a shared commitment to sustainable development through economic growth, ecological balance and social progress. Its members are drawn from more than 30 countries and 20 major industrial sectors. Its mission is to provide business leadership as a catalyst for change toward sustainable development, and to support the business licence to operate, innovate and grow in a world increasingly shaped by sustainable development issues. |
World Economic Forum (WEF) | The World Economic Forum is an independent international organisation committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. |
World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) | The WFA is the voice of advertisers worldwide representing 90% of global marketing communications expenditures through a unique global network that includes 50 national advertiser associations on five continents, as well as direct multinational corporate members. Through the network, the WFA represents more than 10 000 businesses operating in a broad spectrum of sectors at national, regional and global levels. The WFA has a dual mission: to defend and promote responsible commercial communications; and to facilitate a media environment, which stimulates maximum effectiveness of advertising spend. |
