Improving health and well-being

Unilever's work on improving health & well-being supports

7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Select one of the goals to find out how we're taking action in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Find out how we’re realising the business opportunity from the SDGs
  • Zero Hunger
  • Good Health and Wellbeing
  • Clean Water and Sanitation
  • Responsible Consumption and Production
  • Climate Action
  • Life Below Water
  • Partnership For The Goals
Find out how we’re realising the business opportunity from the SDGs
Partnership For The Goals

Partnerships For The Goals

The social and environmental change required to meet the SDGs cannot be addressed by one business acting alone. Zero hunger, zero poverty, climate action, eradicating modern slavery – these are transformational goals, and they require transformational change, brought about by a concerted effort. Business, governments and civil society all have a role to play.

We’re involved in a wide range of partnerships, which often include new types of funding and new ways of working, whether with fellow companies or with other agencies. The Consumer Goods Forum’s sector-wide commitment to zero net deforestation by 2020, and the Unstereotype Alliance, a partnership with UN Women and other businesses aimed at eliminating gender stereotypes from advertising, are good examples of what’s possible.

Our global partnerships with NGOs and others address issues ranging from water and sanitation, to sustainable sourcing, to improving health and nutrition. Many harness the strength of our brands – such as the Vaseline® Healing Project, a partnership with NGO Direct Relief which aims to help heal the skin of 5 million people by 2020.

But we want to go much further – both in the impact of our partnerships, and in their alignment with the SDGs. A good example is TRANSFORM, our partnership with the UK government's DFID, which uses a public–private finance model to address persistent developmental challenges and aims to enable 100 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to gain access to products and services that have been shown to improve health, livelihoods, the environment or wellbeing.

Explore how Unilever is taking action

Vegan

More plant-based options
Pot

Sustainable Nutrition
Lady

Providing safe drinking water
Boy

Improving oral health
Toilets

Toilets for a better tomorrow
Free

Building body confidence and self-esteem
Girls

Healthy handwashing habits for life
Family

Ready to respond to disasters & emergencies
Man

Reducing our environmental impact in Foods and Refreshment
Bowl

Nutritious diets
Bowl

Nutritious cooking
Pot

Responsibly delicious
grown

Grown for good
Our Big Goal Improving health and well-being for more than 1 billion
By 2020 we will help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being.

Improving health & well-being

Our performance: Health & hygiene

By the end of 2018 we had reached 1.24 billion people through our programmes on handwashing, safe drinking water, sanitation, oral health, self-esteem and skin healing.
653 million people reached
Over 2010-2018 Lifebuoy's handwashing programmes reached 459 million people
55 million people reached with safe drinking water; 106 billion litres since 2005
16.5 million people gained improved access to a toilet over 2012-2017
83.5 million people reached with oral health programmes since 2010
Over 35 million young people received help via Dove self-esteem programmes over 2005-2018
Over 4 million people reached through our Vaseline healing project since 2015

Our performance: Nutrition

48% of our foods met the highest nutritional standards in 2018, based on globally recognised dietary guidelines
66% of our foods met our 5g per day target for salt intake
-20% sugar across all our sweetened tea-based beverages reduced since 2010
92% of our packaged ice cream contained 250 calories or fewer per portion
Key:
Achieved
On-plan
Off-plan
% Of target achieved

Δ In 2018, 48% of our portfolio by volume met the highest nutritional standards. This is based on an assessment of every single product in all countries, and across our total retail and foodservice business.

Our approach

Lack of safe drinking water, and poor sanitation and hygiene, cause millions of preventable deaths each year – particularly among children. By 2020 we will help more than a billion people to improve their health and hygiene. This will help reduce the incidence of life-threatening diseases like diarrhoea, which is one of the main causes of deaths in children under five.

Today, more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight – that’s 39% of the world’s population – with 40 million children classified as obese. At the same time, micronutrient deficiencies are estimated to impact over 2 billion people. By 2020, we will double the proportion of our portfolio that meets the highest nutritional standards, based on globally recognised dietary guidelines. This will help hundreds of millions of people to achieve a healthier diet.

Our approach encompasses health and hygiene and improving nutrition. We are uniquely placed to deliver change at scale as we are the only multinational consumer goods company with a portfolio across Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, Foods and Refreshment. The business case is compelling – delivering our commitments is driving more growth, lower costs, less risk and more trust.

Our approach, which directly supports a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, focuses on:

  • Selling appealing products with health, hygiene and nutrition benefits
  • Encouraging people to take action on health, hygiene and nutrition through behaviour change programmes
  • Advocating to bring these issues higher up the national and international policy agenda
  • Working with partners dedicated to health, hygiene and nutrition, to broaden our impact.

† Independently assured by PwC

Improving health & well-being pillars

Health & hygiene

Kids washing their hands

We’re helping to drive transformational change through our brands, and our water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) agenda.

Improving nutrition

Hellmanns Mayonnaise

Our vision is of Sustainable Nutrition – foods and refreshments that taste good, feel good and are a force for good.
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