Unilever’s sustainability targets play a critical role in futureproofing our business, ensuring focus and urgency in the areas where we can deliver the most impact. Discover how we’re taking action on our four priority sustainability focus areas: climate, nature, plastics and livelihoods.
Tackling the nature crisis – we’re in this together
Tackling the nature crisis – we’re in this together
Unilever – and the world – depends on natural and agricultural ecosystems to thrive.
From sourcing raw materials to manufacturing and product use, the health of soil, water and biodiversity directly shapes our supply chain resilience and operational continuity.
Through integrated actions and partnerships that help address biodiversity loss, we can enhance business growth while also generating co-benefits for climate and livelihoods.
We’re focusing our efforts on where we can make the biggest impact, helping to protect and regenerate nature in six main ways:
Find out more about our approach and why nature is so important for Unilever.
Why nature is a business-critical resource for Unilever
We’re deeply dependent on the natural world, particularly agriculture for our raw materials, and water for our manufacturing and consumer use of our products.
And so, global loss of biodiversity, degradation of soil and increasing water scarcity – all compounded by climate change – present multiple risks to our business.
There could be significant implications for our supply chain sustainability and productivity, crop yields and raw material availability, which can also impact the farmers we work with.
We’re responding to these risks through ambitious actions on nature and partnerships that help natural and agricultural ecosystems to thrive.
We’re integrating our approach with our climate actions to strengthen resilience, secure supply and support sustainable business growth.
What is Unilever’s progress towards its nature targets?
We continue to make progress towards our nature targets and, in the case of our no-deforestation work, maintain year-on-year progress.[a] Find out more about our 2025 progress below and in our Annual Report and Accounts (PDF 6.16 MB).
Target: Maintain no deforestation across our primary deforestation-linked commodities
- 97% of our purchase volumes of palm oil, paper and board, tea and soy were deforestation-free in 2025, based on our requirements.
- We achieved this by investing in a simplified palm oil supply chain with better transparency and traceability, verifying and remediating suppliers, and empowering smallholders to farm sustainably.
- This work remains a priority for us, both in terms of retaining existing deforestation-free suppliers and onboarding new suppliers.
Target: 95% volume of key crops to be verified as sustainably sourced by 2030
- 81% of our key crops were sustainably sourced in 2025, including 19% via purchased sustainability credits.
- We’re guided by practices set out in our Sustainable Agricultural Principles (SAP), which incorporate local and Indigenous knowledge and nature-based solutions.
- A decline in some portfolios (dairy, sugar and cocoa) was offset by improvements in others (starches and cereals). As the majority of cocoa volumes relate to Ice Cream, we will review the scope of our targets in 2026 and update our key crops accordingly.[b]
Target: Implement regenerative agriculture practices on 1 million hectares of agricultural land by 2030
- By the end of 2025, we had implemented 0.25 million hectares of regenerative agriculture practices since 2021.
- This included 12 new programmes in 2025, bringing our total to 34 programmes in 17 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, the UK and the US.
- We plan to further scale the implementation of our initiatives through investment in our Regenerative Agriculture Fund in 2026.
Target: Help protect and restore 1 million hectares of natural ecosystems by 2030
- By the end of 2025, we had helped protect and restore 0.66 million hectares of natural ecosystems since 2021.
- This included three new programmes in 2025, including expansion of activities within the Rimba Collective and a partnership with Conservation International in Ecuador, bringing our total to 14 programmes.
- We continue to prioritise landscapes based on our commodity footprint, operational presence and the need for additional support from Unilever in the area.
Target: Implement water stewardship programmes in 100 locations in water-stressed areas by 2030
- By the end of 2025, we had implemented 29 water stewardship programmes since 2021.
- These programmes are in water-stressed areas where we have manufacturing sites: Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.
- They aim to improve water security through collective action with other stakeholders in the shared water catchment.
As we work towards these targets, we’re partnering with others to drive positive outcomes both within and beyond our own value chain.
Our interlinked approach
Solutions for one target can help us progress towards another.
For example, regenerative agriculture practices are one way we’re sourcing crops more sustainably. And by protecting and restoring natural ecosystems around our sourcing areas, we can help maintain no deforestation for our key commodities.
By working towards our nature targets, we also generate sustainability co-benefits around climate and livelihoods. Changing the way we grow our ingredients can help reduce emissions and provide greater resilience to climate change impacts, as well as income security for smallholder farmers.
Nature-based solutions are an important part of our climate strategy, as set out in our Climate Transition Action Plan (PDF 7.98 MB) (CTAP). And as part of our work on plastics, we’re working to help keep packaging in circulation and avoid polluting the environment.
How is Unilever working in partnership on nature?
- Unilever can only meet its nature goals by working closely with others in our value chain. That’s why our partnerships are so important.
- We’re working closely with our suppliers to deliver positive impact, guided by our People & Nature Policy (PDF 2.04 MB) and our People & Nature Policy Guidelines (PDF 1.63 MB).
- We’re building the capacity of smallholder farmers to embrace sustainable farming practices, training around 29,500 palm oil smallholders in Indonesia since the start of 2024.
- We’re supporting programmes leveraging multi-stakeholder collaboration in our palm sourcing areas, such as through Conservation International in North Sumatra.
- We’re working pre-competitively with other companies to drive uptake of sustainable agriculture, partnering with PepsiCo and others in the US to help provide access to tools, training and funding.
- We’ve joined forces with finance partners Axa and Tikehau Capital to form a large private equity fund to help scale regenerative agriculture globally.
- And through Business for Nature, we’re one of more than 100 business and financial institutions that have been pushing governments to implement and enforce ambitious nature policies.
What is Unilever doing to tackle deforestation in its supply chains?
We’re focusing our efforts on our primary deforestation-linked commodities: palm oil, paper and board, tea and soy. This has been a complex undertaking, requiring significant investment and collaboration.
Following the achievement of our previous goal[a] in 2023, we’re now working to maintain our progress year-on-year. To do this, we’re building new skills in our supply chains, investing in infrastructure and technology, and working to drive change across industry.
Maintaining our progress
In 2025, we achieved 97% purchase volumes of palm oil, paper and board, tea and soy as deforestation-free, based on Unilever’s requirements.
To keep maintaining this progress, we’re fundamentally reshaping how we source these primary deforestation-linked commodities.
Together, they account for over 60% of our total land footprint.
Working with smallholders and suppliers and investing in infrastructure and technology
We’re focusing our efforts where we can make a real difference:
- Empowering smallholders to farm sustainably. We’ve now mapped over 55,000 palm smallholder farmers and are supporting RSPO smallholder certification across our palm supply base.
- Continuing the verification of suppliers against our Independent Verification Protocols on deforestation-free sourcing. We also support the remediation of suppliers with previous non-compliances.
- Investing over €280 million in Unilever Oleochemicals Indonesia (UOI) since 2021 to directly source palm feedstocks, placing less reliance on intermediaries and increasing supply chain transparency and traceability.
- Partnering with technology providers to use cutting-edge technology and AI that helps us monitor and act on deforestation risk.
Driving change across the palm oil industry
We are members of industry groups and coalitions to help us maintain our progress and use our influence for good across the palm oil industry. Some of these include:
- Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
- Consumer Goods Forum – Forest Positive Coalition
- Palm Oil Collaboration Group
- Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil Standard – Impact Alliance
We also want governments to adopt and enforce policies to help halt deforestation and conversion of natural ecosystems by 2030.
This means developing regulations and standards that enable inclusive, deforestation-free value chains.
To support this, we’re sharing our learnings from many years of working on traceability and verification, smallholder productivity and supplier engagement.
How we’re supporting more sustainable palm oil sourcing in Sumatra
How is Unilever sourcing crops grown sustainably and regeneratively?
Agriculture is the backbone of our business. To help restore biodiversity and build more resilient supply chains that bring benefits to farmers, we’re changing how our key crops are grown.
This means buying crops farmed sustainably and helping farmers to adopt more regenerative agriculture practices.
Using our purchasing power
Sustainable sourcing is at the root of agricultural resilience and a more stable and efficient food supply. For over a decade, we’ve been working with suppliers and farmers to buy sustainably grown crops.
This work covers 10 key crop groups, from palm and soy to vegetables and cereals, that together account for over 77% of our agricultural sourcing by volume.
In 2025, we sourced 81% of our key crops sustainably. We’re guided by our Sustainable Agricultural Principles (SAP) (PDF 5 MB), which enable us to identify and benchmark codes, standards and assessments that meet our sustainable sourcing requirements.
Scaling regenerative agriculture
In 2025, we implemented 12 new regenerative agriculture programmes including canola in Canada and soy in Brazil. They bring our total to 34 active programmes across 17 countries, covering 254,000 hectares since 2021.
We aim to address the most material environmental impacts faced by farmers, including those related to climate, soil and biodiversity.
Drawing on our Regenerative Agriculture Principles (PDF 8.34 MB), we’re supporting farmers and suppliers to establish practices such as cover cropping and crop rotation, reducing tillage and using natural alternatives to synthetic fertilisers.
This helps smallholder farmers to protect their incomes, and become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
Partnering to maximise and measure impact
To make our regenerative agriculture programmes happen, we work closely with agricultural experts and implementation partners to boost farmers’ capabilities and capacity.
And with our technology partners, we’re using advanced technologies to collect farm and supply chain data and measure positive impact:
- We’re working with Nature Metrics and Biome Makers to use environmental DNA sampling to measure soil changes and insect biodiversity in our supply chain.
- We’re guided by Rothamsted Research on the design of robust soil organic carbon sampling and modelling approaches to accurately measure carbon removals.
Engaging government on supportive policy
We want to see regulations that support farmers to adopt regenerative farming, and this is an important part of our advocacy to governments.
In Brazil, through the WBCSD’s Landscape Accelerator Brazil (LAB), we’ve championed policy and finance solutions to support the regenerative transformation of the Cerrado, a key sourcing landscape for our soybean oil.
How is Unilever protecting and restoring nature?
We’re collaborating with NGOs and local communities to support the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems where we operate and source commodities, or where there’s need for additional support from Unilever in the area.
These are long-term, multi-stakeholder programmes largely focused in South East Asia and covering a wide range of activities – from preserving forests to creating wildlife corridors.
Progressing towards our goal
In 2025, we supported the implementation of three new programmes to protect and restore nature in areas closely associated with our sourcing locations.
They include long-term partnerships across three provinces in Indonesia that are supply bases for our palm oil processing facility in North Sumatra.
This takes us to a total of 14 protection and restoration programmes, with 34 projects covering around 660,000 hectares since 2021.
Investing in nature protection and restoration programmes
Much of our progress in protecting and restoring nature comes from working with civil society organisations.
For example, Unilever is providing conservation finance as a founding member of the Rimba Collective. This initiative aims to protect and restore over 500,000 hectares of forests and improve the livelihoods of 32,000 people – helping to scale positive impact across palm production landscapes in South East Asia.
We’re also supporting the work of WWF-Malaysia and local non-profit organisations to preserve key plant species, restore riverside reserves and create wildlife corridors in Malaysia.
Taking a landscape approach to nature protection and restoration
Working in landscapes to protect and restore nature means we engage a wide range of stakeholders within a jurisdiction on sustainable development plans, considering land and labour rights.
This collaboration creates shared understanding and actions to protect ecosystems – improving positive outcomes.
These programmes incorporate Indigenous knowledge by directly involving local communities, through activities including joint programme design, mapping of customary areas and supporting traditional forest management practices.
Our Reimagining Landscapes Report (PDF 14.04 MB) sets out examples of programmes in Indonesia and Malaysia that include planting trees, restoring degraded land, and certifying plantations and small farms as sustainable (RSPO).
What is Unilever doing to safeguard water supply?
Water is essential for our business – from growing crops and sourcing other commodities, to formulating and manufacturing our products, through to consumer use. It’s also vital for nature and the communities sharing the river catchment areas in which we operate.
Working with different partners and local experts around the world, we aim to become a better steward of water in water-stressed areas. This can help us reduce costs and improve resilience to water shortages, while helping to drive collective action at scale.
Progressing our journey on water stewardship
Having already taken big strides to reduce water use in our operations through site management plans, minimising water extraction, and reusing and recycling freshwater, we’re now also working to improve water security beyond our factory walls.
In 2025, we implemented nine additional water stewardship programmes, bringing our total to 29 active programmes in water-stressed areas in 14 countries.
Each programme is aligned with the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard, an external global framework, or the Prabhat approach, our community development initiative in India.
Here, we’ve worked with manufacturing sites and communities to address gaps in water supply and demand – supporting almost 3 million people through irrigation, rainwater collection and more water-efficient farming.
Partnering on water stewardship in our value chain
We can do more to protect water supply by working with NGOs and other businesses.
Our regional implementation partners – including DKM in Turkey, TNC in Brazil and WWF in South Africa, Algeria and Pakistan – bring local knowledge and expertise to our programmes.
We also expect our suppliers to comply with the mandatory water-related requirements of our Responsible Partner Policy (PDF 4.45 MB).
Principles and policies
Our nature programmes and interactions with suppliers are guided by some key policies and principles.
Responsible Partner Policy (PDF 4.45 MB)
People & Nature Policy (PDF 2.04 MB)
People & Nature Policy Guidelines (PDF 1.63 MB)
Regenerative Agriculture Principles (PDF 8.34 MB)
Sustainable Agricultural Principles (PDF 5 MB)
Our other sustainability priorities
Climate
Climate action has long been part of how we do business. But the world must move faster to avoid the worst effects of climate change. We’ve set more ambitious climate targets and identified clearer actions to respond to this challenge.
Plastics
We’ve been working hard to create a circular economy for plastic packaging for a number of years. We’ve learnt that transformation takes time. Given the size of this challenge, we’re using our innovation capabilities to find new, scalable solutions.
Livelihoods
The impacts of inequality go far beyond income – to health, human rights and economic growth. So we’re working to improve the livelihoods of people in our global value chain.
[a]
(1, 2) In 2020, we set a goal to achieve a deforestation-free supply chain in palm oil, paper and board, soy, tea and cocoa. Having achieved 98% in 2023, we then set a new goal to maintain deforestation-free sourcing on an annual basis (95%). This commitment is aligned with SBTi guidance and forms part of Unilever’s 2030 Scope 3 FLAG emissions reduction target. Read more about our work on deforestation-free sourcing.
[b]
Following the demerger of our Ice Cream business on 6 December 2025, all territories and activities within the scope of the Ice Cream business have been treated as discontinued operations in our consolidated financial statements. As a result, our sustainability progress metrics focus on our four continuing Business Groups (Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care and Foods). No adjustments to baseline values, base years or targets were made for the demerger of our Ice Cream business. This will be reassessed in 2026. See our Annual Report and Accounts 2025 for more details. (PDF 6.16 MB)