Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
We want to see a society where everyone is treated equally. We're working to create a fairer, more socially inclusive world.
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We are a €13.8 billion business with much-loved deodorant, skin cleansing and oral care brands including Dove, Rexona, LUX, Axe, Lifebuoy and Pepsodent. We hold leading category positions in deodorants and skin cleansing globally and the #1 or #2 position in oral care in the countries where we are present.
We are also home to Unilever International, which reaches underserved consumers around the world.
Through our Personal Care brands, we’re taking action to drive positive change.
We are advocates for new policies, laws and social norms that will promote inclusion, health and wellbeing for all members of society.
With more than 1 billion people using our products every day, we have an opportunity to use our scale for good. So that people and the planet can thrive together.
Through our brands, we are helping to improve people’s health and wellbeing and advance equity and inclusion, aiming to reach 1 billion people per year by 2030.
For example, Dove’s Self-Esteem Project is helping instil body confidence in the next generation. Rexona’s Breaking Limits programme is helping young people overcome barriers to being active by funding community sports projects.
We’re building on our heritage, of over a century creating products that provide hygiene for people in need. With many years of delivering Lifebuoy education and handwashing programmes that empower people to protect themselves and their families from preventable diseases.
We’re using our reach and presence to defy stereotypes, to help drive change for a more inclusive future, as a People Positive Personal Care business.
We are aiming to positively impact billions of lives by working with others to achieve change, shaping norms, policies and laws.
We are working to ensure that more people have access to our programmes and products that can help support their physical health and mental wellbeing. And we’re teaming up with partner organisations to expand our programmes and reach.
We have strong foundations to build upon. We are continuing our long-established work in helping people adopt healthy habits like with handwashing with soap and thorough toothbrushing through our brand programmes from Lifebuoy and Smile. We are also expanding our focus into new areas like physical health and mental wellbeing with brands such as Rexona.
We want to see a society where everyone is treated equally. We're working to create a fairer, more socially inclusive world.
We are working to champion gender equity through the three areas where we can have the greatest impact: our advertising, our brand programmes and brand advocacy.
Through our advertising, we’re addressing gender bias and harmful gender stereotypes.
In our brand-led education and behaviour-change programmes, we are addressing the challenges experienced and barriers faced by women and other under-represented groups. Such brand programmes are providing access to resources to build skills or financial support as well as building confidence.
In advocacy, we are stepping up our efforts to influence progression and effect lasting change in systems, culture, and law. Current examples include the Dove Self-Esteem Project and Dove Men+Care’s work to ensure dads have the right financial support to take time off for paternity leave.
We are increasing the number of advertisements portraying people from diverse groups and are committed to ending any digital alteration to change a person’s body shape, size, proportion or skin colour, across all advertising material.
We are delivering on Unilever’s social commitments, announced in January 2021. These include a pledge to spend €2 billion annually with businesses and suppliers owned and led by people from under-represented groups, and to increase the diversity of the people involved in the production of our advertising – on-screen and behind the camera.
And we are advocating for true equity and inclusion, helping to drive positive change. As part of our commitment to championing inclusion, we have eliminated the use of the word ‘normal’ across all our Personal Care products and communications, globally.
Swipe through the images to take a look at some examples of our People Positive work
Narrow beauty standards damage self-esteem, harm confidence and prevent people from fulfilling their potential. That’s why Dove is on a mission to spark positive change.
As part of its commitment to taking action against systemic racism, Dove founded the CROWN Coalition in the US in early 2019. The acronym stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World with No racism. In partnership with the National Urban League, Color of Change and Western Center on Law & Poverty, it’s dedicated to advancing anti-hair discrimination legislation called the CROWN Act.
The CROWN Act calls for a law to prohibit discrimination based on hair texture and hairstyle, creating a more equitable and inclusive world for Black women and girls.
Since its launch, the Crown Act has been passed into law in California, Colorado, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington. Now the CROWN Coalition is galvanising support for legislation to end hair discrimination federally across all 50 states. The CROWN UK Fund was launched in January 2021, to help combat hair bias in the UK too.
Dove has a long history of celebrating inclusion. The Dove Self-Esteem Project was established more than 15 years ago to help ensure no young person is held back from their ambitions because of anxiety about their appearance. The programme supports parents, mentors, teachers and youth leaders in delivering self-esteem workshops, reaching more than 69 million young people across 150 countries so far.
Since its launch in the 1960s, Closeup has focused on what matters most to people: the confidence to get closer to one another and the excitement of doing so.
Since its launch in the 1960s, Closeup has focused on what matters most to people: the confidence to get closer to one another and the excitement of doing so.
The oral care brand’s purpose is to champion love of all kinds, and inspire people to turn mutual attraction into action, free from self-doubt or the judgement of others. That’s the ethos behind its #FreeToLove campaign. Closeup won’t stop until everyone is free to love, regardless of differences in race, religion, age or identity. Closeup believes that all kinds of relationship are equally beautiful and worth fighting for.
In March 2021, Closeup launched Love For All, the world’s first global online counselling platform for couples and relationships that defy stereotypes. Through the platform, it aims to help 1 million young people feel empowered to love, by providing expert advice and inspirational stories.
Partnering with various accredited local organisations around the world, Closeup provides on-the-ground support for young people seeking help when denied the freedom to love. Dr Holly Parker, a practising psychologist specialising in the psychology of close relationships and a Harvard University graduate and lecturer, is sharing her expertise with the brand.
Parental leave gives dads the chance to care for the people who matter most, at a time when support is often needed.
Parental leave gives dads the chance to care for the people who matter most, at a time when support is often needed.
The benefits are countless – for dads, for partners and for children. But restrictive stereotypes and a lack of access to paid parental leave prevent many men from taking this important time away from work. In the US, for example, less than one in five men are offered any paid parental leave, and most dads who do have it don’t believe they can take their full time off to care for their families.
Dove Men+Care wants to change this pattern, so the brand is working with partnerships such as the Parental Leave Corporate Task Force to champion parental leave and higher uptake for dads.
Through these partnerships, research and advocacy, Dove Men+Care is helping challenge stereotypes, developing useful resources for dads and helping shape better policies and workplace culture in this area.
Read more about Dove Men+Care’s commitment to celebrating dads and the care they give.
Handwashing with soap can significantly reduce the spread of preventable diseases, helping to save countless lives. For more than a century, this insight has shaped Lifebuoy’s mission to improve handwashing habits.
Handwashing with soap can significantly reduce the spread of preventable diseases, helping to save countless lives. For more than a century, this insight has shaped Lifebuoy’s mission to improve handwashing habits.
In 2018, the brand passed the milestone of reaching 1 billion people with handwashing education programmes around the world. And in 2020 Lifebuoy launched its ‘H’ for Handwashing movement, a €30 million initiative to accelerate behaviour change and encourage handwashing habits for life.
For generations, children have been taught letters of the alphabet through simple associations with everyday references such as ‘A’ for apple, ‘B’ for ball and ‘C’ for cat. Lifebuoy aims to fundamentally change the way the letter ‘H’ is taught. No longer will ‘H’ stand for Horse, Hat or even Home. ‘H’ must stand for handwashing.
The brand is working with a range of organisations including NGO Save the Children and much-loved children’s TV show Sesame Street to bring its ‘H’ for Handwashing message to a vast audience of children and care-givers through educational storytelling.
Rexona believes in the power of movement to transform lives. Everyone has the right to move – whoever you are and however you move.
Rexona believes in the power of movement to transform lives. Everyone has the right to move – whoever you are and however you move.
That’s why, in late 2020, the brand launched its #MoveYourWay campaign, to inspire confidence in everyone to move more. Content to support the campaign is diverse, inclusive and representative of everyone who wants to move. In some of Rexona’s key markets, initiatives are already in place to celebrate this message.
Rexona is the first global brand to partner with One City Disability – an initiative backed by Manchester City Football Club, one of the top sides in the English Premier League. Every year the programme supports more than 2,400 young people in developing football skills, regardless of their disability or impairment.
On the other side of the world in Indonesia, Rexona has launched a free step-counting app as part of its Gerak Tak Terbatas (Move Beyond Boundaries) campaign. For every step counted, the brand made a donation towards mobility aids to support disabled societies and clubs.
Rexona has also pledged to feature more differently able people in its advertising, representing movement that’s diverse, equitable and inclusive.
When it comes to creating a Planet Positive Personal Care business, we will do less harm and more good for the natural world by protecting and regenerating 1.5 million hectares of land, forests and oceans by 2030. That’s more than we use to grow the renewable ingredients included in our beauty and personal care products.
By 2025, any plastic we use in our packaging will be recyclable, reusable or compostable across every brand worldwide.
Our Personal Care brands are contributing to Unilever’s €1 billion Climate & Nature Fund, through which we’re taking decisive action on issues from water preservation to reforestation, wildlife protection and more.
We’re also continuing to champion the use of science, not animals, to assure the safety of our products and ingredients, as we have for more than 40 years. And we’re sharing our research and expertise to drive systems change and help end animal testing for cosmetics in every part of the world.
As part of our aim not only to do less harm but also to do more good, we are committed to helping protect and regenerate 1.5 million hectares of land, forests and oceans by 2030. This is more land than we use to grow the renewable ingredients included across our beauty and personal care product portfolio.
Our Personal Care brands are investing in Unilever’s dedicated €1 billion Climate & Nature Fund – an initiative launched in 2020 as part of company-wide actions to fight climate change and protect nature. This money will be used to take decisive, meaningful action with projects likely to include landscape restoration, reforestation, carbon sequestration, wildlife protection and water preservation.
And business-wide, we’re committed to a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023, and to making our product formulations biodegradable by 2030, minimising their impact on water and aquatic ecosystems.
As part of Unilever’s global commitment to closing the loop on plastic, we’re contributing towards the removal of over 100,000 tonnes of plastic from our packaging entirely by 2025 and ensuring that any plastic we do use is recyclable, reusable or compostable.
Among the changes we made in 2020, Dove, our biggest Personal Care brand, switched to 100% recycled bottles across Europe and North America. And our Signal, Pepsodent and Closeup oral care brands are rolling out recyclable toothpaste tubes globally.
We’re working on refillable, reusable packaging too – launching pilot programmes around the world to test viability, learn from results and refine our approach.
At Unilever, we believe in using science, not animals, to assess product safety.
Unilever is recognised by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) as a company working for regulatory change, and we support calls for a worldwide ban on animal testing for cosmetics.
We’re working alongside lawmakers, animal protection organisations and like-minded companies and brands to drive this change, sharing the expertise we’ve gained in more than 40 years of pioneering alternatives to animal testing.
We believe people have a right to know how the products they choose and use are made. Dove, our biggest Personal Care brand, is PETA-approved, and we’re working on gaining this accreditation for more. Through our brands, we are raising consumer awareness and continuing to advocate for positive change and adopt approaches that provide greater transparency and deepen trust in our brands and business.
Swipe through the images to take a look at some examples of our Planet Positive work
LUX has helped plant more than 10 million sqm of grassland in Tibet over the past ten years. It’s part of the brand’s Go Green Go LUX campaign, where a small donation from the purchase of every bottle of LUX shower gel sold in China goes to support rural Tibetan communities.
Lux has helped plant more than 10 million sqm of grassland in Tibet over the past ten years. It’s part of the brand’s Go Green Go Lux campaign, where a small donation from the purchase of every bottle of Lux shower gel sold in China goes to support rural Tibetan communities.
Every 1RMB (€0.1) donation equates to 1 sqm of grass planted, improving Tibet’s degraded pastures and desertification.
In 2020, the brand launched a new Lux Botanicals bodywash enriched with alfalfa, one of the grasses planted in Tibet. The move has helped more than 12,000 local farmers and herdsmen to earn a more sustainable income.
Our scientists have been developing and using alternatives to animal testing to assess the safety of cosmetics since the 1980s. We believe that using human-relevant science and new technology is the best way to assess product safety, and for decades we’ve worked closely with governments and the scientific community all over the world to share our research.
Our scientists have been developing and using alternatives to animal testing to assess the safety of cosmetics since the 1980s. We believe that using human-relevant science and new technology is the best way to assess product safety, and for decades we’ve worked closely with governments and the scientific community all over the world to share our research.
In 2018, Unilever became the first major international company to announce support for calls to bring a global end to animal testing for cosmetics. We established a multi-year partnership with Humane Society International and joined its #BeCrueltyFree initiative.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) lists Unilever as one of just five companies recognised as “working for regulatory change”.
Some of our beauty and personal care brands are now PETA-approved and listed on PETA’s global Beauty Without Bunnies website.
In March 2021, our list includes: Chistaya Linia, Dove, Emerge, Love Beauty and Planet, Simple, St. Ives, Suave, Sunsilk, the good stuff and Zendium.
We announced our support for calls to bring a global end to all animal testing for cosmetics back in 2018.
We announced our support for calls to bring a global end to all animal testing for cosmetics back in 2018.
We’ve been developing and using non-animal methods for decades and firmly believe there is no need for animal testing to assure the safety of our beauty and personal care products. Our position is clear. We say use science, not animals.
That’s why we’re taking a stand against recently announced requirements from the European Commission and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
Since 2013, the EU Cosmetics Regulation has banned animal testing on ingredients used in cosmetics in Europe. But in August 2020, ECHA said that certain substances should undergo animal testing, even if they are for use solely in cosmetics. These ingredients have a long history of safe use by consumers and have been handled safely in factories for many years.
A return to mandated animal testing risks undermining the progress that’s been made through decades of collaboration between the scientific community and so many others.
Across our global business, we’ve pledged to halve the use of virgin plastic in our packaging by 2025 and remove 100,000 tonnes of plastic entirely.
Across our global business, we’ve pledged to halve the use of virgin plastic in our packaging by 2025 and remove 100,000 tonnes of plastic entirely.
One way we’re cutting back on plastic is by introducing refillable packaging for some of our leading beauty and personal care brands. We’re running pilot programmes all over the world, learning from the results and scaling up our success stories.
Recent launches include Sunsilk (sold locally as Sedal), which introduced aluminium bottles and refill pumps in Walmart stores in Mexico. Love Beauty and Planet has also launched reusable aluminium bottles and refills in bottles made from 100% recycled, fully recyclable plastic.
And Dove, our biggest beauty and personal care brand, has launched refillable deodorant sticks in the US, sold in durable stainless steel cases that are built to last.
Post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic now accounts for more than 10% of Unilever's plastics footprint.
Post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic now accounts for more than 10% of Unilever’s plastics footprint. We’re working towards doubling that amount during 2021 as we make progress towards our goal of using at least 25% PCR by 2025.
To share some examples from our personal care portfolio, Dove now uses 100% recycled bottles across Europe and North America. The move includes Dove Men+Care and Baby Dove bottles too, and the brand is working on recycled plastic solutions for pumps and caps. Dove will save 20,500 tonnes of virgin plastic per year as a result of the switch.
For Lynx (also known as Axe), black bottles are synonymous with the brand. They look great, but there’s a catch. Black plastic can be hard for sorting machines to detect at recycling plants. The infra-red light such machines use is absorbed by black pigment.
For Lynx (also known as Axe), black bottles are synonymous with the brand. They look great, but there’s a catch. Black plastic can be hard for sorting machines to detect at recycling plants. The infra-red light such machines use is absorbed by black pigment.
In 2019, Unilever teams worked closely with several partners to address the issue, carrying out extensive trials at recycling facilities in the UK and Ireland, and in North America.
Together, they came up with a solution: a new black pigment that can be used with recycled plastic, which optical sorting machines can see.
Now we’re sharing this innovation and the insights generated with other manufacturers, to enable wider use of the new, detectable plastic and help more plastic to stay in the circular economy, not the environment.