Most of Unilever’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from the raw materials, ingredients and packaging we buy[a]. Through our Supplier Climate Programme, we’re working with key partners with the aim of helping them measure, share and reduce the climate impact of materials we source.
Our progress so far
Almost 200 key suppliers active in our Supplier Climate Programme by the end of 2025
Over 40% [a]of our scope 3 GHG emissions from raw materials, ingredients and packaging accounted for by these suppliers
Over 2,000 product carbon footprint (PCF) data points were collected from suppliers in 2025
25 deep-dive partnerships to identify GHG hotspots and decarbonisation opportunities in 2025
About the Supplier Climate Programme
Since its beginnings in 2021, our Supplier Climate Programme has focused on a selected group of suppliers, large and small, whose materials contribute most to our GHG emissions – from chemicals producers and agricultural suppliers to packaging providers and collaborative (third-party) manufacturers.
The Programme is one of several action areas we’ve set out in our Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP) (PDF 7.98 MB) to help us move towards our science-based targets [b] for reducing scope 3 GHG emissions by 2030.
Shailendra Sadera, Chief Procurement Officer, UnileverWe are collaborating with our partners on how to overcome challenges and find scalable and affordable climate solutions across our value chain. We've seen firsthand that use of renewables can reduce operational costs and shelter us from energy market volatility. We are sharing these learnings through our Supplier Climate Programme, laying the foundation for further targeted action.
How the programme works
The Programme is built around three main levers.
Climate clauses
We’re embedding climate into key commercial processes and documents, including supplier contracts. Climate clauses set clear, shared expectations with suppliers in the Programme, for example, setting a Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)-aligned target as the first of several steps.
Measuring and sharing PCF data, and building a 2030 roadmap
Our partner, Altruistiq, supports suppliers in the Programme to calculate and share product carbon footprint (PCF) data for the materials they supply to Unilever. They also help less experienced suppliers to build a tailored 2030 decarbonisation roadmap.
Used in place of industry averages, supplier-specific PCF data can improve the specificity of our GHG estimates and help us identify and track decarbonisation opportunities together.
We've worked with other businesses in the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT), hosted by World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), to standardise how PCF data is collected. This can reduce the reporting burden for suppliers who share data with multiple customers.
Shifting to renewable energy
For many suppliers in the Programme, the energy used in manufacturing for electricity and heat is a significant source of emissions. We aim to support their transition to renewable energy (RE) through our ‘Project REshift’, which includes:
- Knowledge sharing: By the end of 2025, Unilever had reduced its scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 77% vs 2015[a]. We’ve developed Energy Transition Playbooks that draw on our experience and offer practical guidance for moving electricity and thermal energy to renewable sources.
- Procurement support: Working with Schneider Electric, we’re providing market intelligence and supporting suppliers to identify specific renewable energy projects, including easier access to power purchase agreements (PPAs) through aggregated demand. We’re also helping collaborative manufacturers in India to purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) and providing technical assistance to support India tea estates to decarbonise.
To support suppliers with financing their transition to renewable energy, we’ve also partnered with banks including HSBC and Citi to provide lower-cost sustainability-linked financing to selected suppliers meeting specific criteria in the Programme.
Lenny Ellenkamp-van Olst, Director of Sustainability at Weener PlasticsSustainability was already high on our agenda when we joined the Programme, but we didn’t have much experience of making footprint calculations ourselves, so being offered a pre-selected tool to use was helpful. Now, we’re training our teams using the PCF calculations we’ve made. It helps our developers design products in the best way and enables our operational teams to focus on the most relevant emission-reduction plans.
Get in touch
Suppliers in the Programme can draw on support from our Procurement Team, who co-ordinate Programme activity and can connect suppliers with Unilever subject matter experts where specialist input is needed – from energy procurement to ingredients and packaging.
If you're a supplier in the Programme and would like support, please reach out to your usual Procurement contact at Unilever.
Resources
- Learn how the Supplier Climate Programme fits into Unilever’s updated Climate Transition Action Plan (PDF 7.98 MB), backed by 97.59% of shareholder votes at our 2024 AGM.
- Read our Energy Transition Playbooks for practical guidance on shifting to renewable electricity (PDF 2.22 MB) and heat (PDF 2.12 MB), based on Unilever’s own experience.
- If you’re a large company looking to drive supplier action on climate, explore Exponential Roadmap’s 1.5°C Supplier Engagement Guide for practical guidance and examples of supplier engagement by climate leaders.
- If you’re a supplier who has been requested to share PCF data, learn about the PACT Methodology framework.
To read more about our work to reduce emissions in our value chain, visit our Climate hub page.
(1, 2, 3) The Ice Cream business completed its separation from Unilever on 6 December 2025. Consistent with the Annual Report and Accounts 2025, reported 2025 scope 3 performance includes Ice Cream, while scope 1 and 2 performance is reported on a continuing-operations basis and excludes Ice Cream. For information on the breakdown of our GHG emissions and the actions of our Supplier Climate Programme in 2025, read our Annual Report and Accounts (PDF 6.16 MB).
Our scope 3 targets are as follows: i) Reduce absolute Scope 3 energy and industrial GHG emissions from purchased goods and services (associated with ingredients, packaging), upstream transport and distribution, energy and fuel-related activities, direct emissions from use of sold products (associated with HFC propellants), end of life treatment of sold products, and downstream leased assets (associated with ice cream retail cabinets) by 42% by 2030, from a 2021 baseline. ii) Reduce absolute Scope 3 forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) GHG emissions from purchased goods and services (associated with ingredients) by 30.3% by 2030, from a 2021 baseline). For more information, read our CTAP (PDF 7.98 MB).