Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics: Unilever's Ethical Performance in Response to Climate Change

This report discusses Unilever's ethical performance in response to climate change, including their initiatives to achieve net zero emissions, create a regenerative agriculture code, and increase direct water conservation activities. It also explores Unilever's CSR approach, code of ethics, and the impact of megatrends and ethical theories on their actions.

Corporate Social
Responsibility and
ethics

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Ethical performance of Unilever in response to climate change............................................3
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................5
Discussion on Unilever CSR approach, code of ethics and their activities...........................5
Discuss about megatrend and its affects by pandemic and its effect to the chosen company6
Ethical theories to make a sense of the actions of Unilever...................................................7
Unilever ethical performance and the limitation of ethical theories used by this company. .8
Recommendation for Unilever to improve their ethical response to the megatrend..............8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10
Books and Journals..............................................................................................................10

Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is considered as a concept of management in
which different types of businesses incorporate social and environmental issues into
performing some activities or conducting some business operations and interactions with
stakeholders. CSR is commonly defined as the process through which a firm achieves a
balance of social, environmental, and economic necessities while also meeting the
expectations of shareholders and stakeholders. Business ethics is basically said to be a study
of the practices and policies of different companies that states the standards for morally right
and wrong conduct in business. In this report, it will discuss about the ethical performance of
Unilever as well as its CSR approach and code of ethics. The below report will also cover
about the mega trend and their affect to the chosen organization(Saha, R., and et. al., 2020).
The various ethical theories to make a sense of their actions and what this company has done
in the last three years. At last, it covers the ethical performance of Unilever and the
recommendations through which they can improvise their ethics priorities and goals to
support their success.
Task 1
Ethical performance of Unilever in response to climate change
Climate change in a positive way is a must thing that every company should do and
perform some activities like reducing the carbon emission, using more renewable resources
and many more. At this current time, Unilever announced a new set of initiatives and pledges
aimed at improving the whole earth health by taking even more urgent action to combat
climate change, protect and regenerate environment as well as save the needed resources for
future generations. By 2039, this company has claimed that they will have achieve net zero
emissions from all of its goods. Unilever has a great focus towards this objective and they are
going to make sure that the emission will be balanced with the carbon removals in order to
achieve their net zero emission. After sometime this company has also realized that the
overall world cannot wait till 2039 to start investing in nature and climate. So, they decided to
set up a billion dollar climate and nature fund to help their brands in investing on that projects
that helps to improvise the quality of climate as well as protect the nature. This organization
has said that in future they will empower a new generation of farmers and smallholders to
drive programmes to protect and restore forests, soil, and biodiversity. Unilever will
collaborate with governments and other organisations to enhance water access for
communities in the area that has a significant scarcity of water(Walzel., Robertson, and
Anagnostopoulos., 2018).
The main focus of this company is to eliminate or remove the emission from their
operations of performing such work which causes large emission of carbon. In order to

achieve this goal, Unilever has focused very much in 2019 for this problem and in 2020 they
accomplish this vision by achieving 100% renewable grid electricity. After that the company
has moved its focus on transitioning to renewable heat sources in their firms or industries by
removing their HFC refrigerants from their cooling system. They are working with effective
partners in order to shift their operations of lower emission transport options and are also
going to reduce the emissions by enabling the suppliers to make their own targets. Unilever
has been leading the industry on conducting the sustainable practices from very past years
and research has depicted that around 89% of their commodities related to forest are said to
be certified. This company has also said that they will achieve a deforestation free supply
chain by the year 2023. In order to accomplish this business objective, they had already
increased the traceability by using the innovative and latest technologies like blockchain,
geolocation tracking and satellite monitoring(Tourigny., and et. al., 2019).
Unilever is also creating a ground breaking Regenerative Agriculture Code for all of
their dealers. The new code is going to create on their existing Sustainable Agriculture Code,
which is largely regarded as the best in the industry, and will contain the information on
farming practises that support in the recovery of essential resources. The company is focusing
on making it able that the Regenerative Agriculture Code is available to any kind of firm that
may find it useful. They have already done this in the past with the main purpose of
promoting the change throughout the industry. Unilever has also very much committed to
collaborating with governments, NGOs, and industry to look beyond peatlands, forests, and
tropical rainforests. This also helps them to protect other important areas of high conservation
value and high carbon stock that are under threat of being converted to arable land,
potentially causing destruction on natural habitats. Unilever is working to help nature
regenerate by preserving water conservation, restoring soil health, and improving local
biodiversity. In addition to continuing to push for sustainable sourcing and the end of
deforestation. To accomplish this desired objective of the company, they will have to
empower a new generation of farmers and smallholders who are dedicated to safeguarding
and restoring their farm environment. This tool will majorly help the farmers in improvising
their livelihood of farmers and enable to ascertain the ways to drive the regeneration of whole
nature(Doshmanli., Salamzadeh, and Salamzadeh., 2018).
Unilever is also going to work on something in order to increase its direct water
conservation activities. A research has been depicted that water scarcity has already affects
around 40% of the total world's population, and around more than 2.1 billion people drink

contaminated water. By 2030, this considered company that is Unilever plan to launch water
stewardship programmes that is specifically for the local communities in roundabout a
hundred different areas. This initiative or programme adopts a community based approach to
water management by addressing not just the basic human need for adequate and easy access
to water across cropping seasons, but also the basic human need for adequate. This company
is going to create a model for this water stewardship programme and will work with major
suppliers to help them to run comparable initiatives(Whait., and et. al., 2018).
Task 2
Discussion on Unilever CSR approach, code of ethics and their activities
Unilever is the UK multinational organization who owns around 400 brands and have
a turnover of 51 billion euros. The headquarter of this company is in London, UK and it is
public limited company. This company is mainly divided into three main divisions like
beauty and personal care, home care and foods and refreshments. It is founded by lever
brothers in September 1929 in the United Kingdom. Unilever is a globally decentralised firm
that competes in highly competitive marketplaces and local responsibility is considered as a
basis of their success and a cornerstone of their operating culture. In order to show this
company wide picture of efforts, it is necessary to bring together clear social performance
information from a variety of communities. This is the reason in 1999 and 2000, nine
Unilever firms around the world has represented more than a quarter of the company's total
revenue. The company is also tested a framework to evaluate and manage their CSR
performance. They even also get to know that societal expectations are shifting, and that they
are being asked to consider the social role as well as be transparent about their social impact.
The overall reflects that this company has a societal approach to CSR (De Roeck, and
Farooq., 2018).
Code of ethics of the company are basically the guidelines and the practices
implemented by an organization. This is used by various person and companies to govern
their process of making an effective decision. This usually outlines the ethical principles that
oversee the decisions and behaviour in the company. Unilever offers the value of
responsibility, respect, integrity and their code of business principle is a very ethical
statement which shows the way they operate. This company publish their code of principles
in the marketplace and then expect from all the other businesses to work with them by setting
up equally high principles. The code policies of this company show their ethical behaviours
that all the level of employees must validate when they are working for them.

Discuss about megatrend and its affects by pandemic and its effect to the chosen
company
Megatrends are basically the long-term driving forces that are currently visible and
will most likely to have a worldwide effect in the future of a person or an organization. These
trends can assist an individual or a company in identifying likely and preferred futures as well
as these can be used to think about the future in a more complete approach. The major five
megatrends are climate change, rise of technology, rapid urbanization, demographic change
and a significant shift in the global economic power.
Effects on megatrends by pandemic
COVID-19 has had a big impact on the socioeconomic as well as technological
elements that influence behaviour of customers and interrupt the businesses around the world.
Organizations have had to overcome obstacles and recalibrate for a different future across
industries and marketplaces. Major companies have examined how the health crisis and the
ensuing global economic slump have affected the five megatrend drivers in these pandemic
years(Jones, and et. al., 2019).
 Technology: - Despite the fact that the internet is used by more than half of the
world's population but this COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted its importance in
society. Work, school, and recreation were all quickly transferred to digital platforms
by the respective departments. Higher than 70% of industry professionals say
COVID-19 caused them to expedite certain technology-related investments, and 68%
believe consumers will judge them more on their digital prowess after the crisis.
 Shifting economic power: - The COVID-19 epidemic has exacerbated the worldwide
economic divide. Emerging market economies like India, Indonesia, and Brazil are
still dealing with the epidemic, while certain heavily indebted developing countries
would be more susceptible after the outbreak. When compared to emerging and
developing markets, advanced economies saw a more severe decline in 2020 as a
result of the pandemic(Nave, and Ferreira., 2019).
 Environmental shifts and pressures: - While consumer concerns about the
environment remain substantial, they lost some traction during the peak of the
epidemic, as COVID-19 shifted focus to immediate socioeconomic issues. As a
result, ethical purchase decisions have been influenced and results in a new societal
drive. Consumers are more politically and socially aware about their live and health
than they were before the epidemic.

Effect of megatrend on Unilever
Megatrends has a significant impact on the chosen organization that is Unilever. It has
a major impact on the productivity level of the company because these trends enable the
competitors to get ahead in the marketplace. This moreover has an effect on their sales as
well as revenues. The various effects of different megatrends on Unilever are discuss below: -
Climate change: - The effect of climate change on Unilever is that it can create an
effect on the prices of their goods or products. The changing weather patterns causes a lot of
impact on the basic resources that is used to make to their products. If the resources are get
harmed due to which it enables the shortage of that particular resource which moreover
results in increasing the cost price of the good(Al Mubarak., Hamed, and Al Mubarak., 2018).
Rise in technology: - All the companies are advancing their techniques or tools in
performing the activities. In the same way, Unilever are also focus on innovating ideas and
advancement technologies which will help their company to increase their efficiency of
production. The major effect on Unilever of this element is that if there happens a significant
rise in the technology in the marketplace and all the companies are acquiring that technology.
So, Unilever must also acquire that particular technology in order to effectively compete with
the rivalry in terms of efficiency in the production.
Global economic shift: - This factor has also major effect on the companies because it
is directly related to the economic performance of the company. Global economy is basically
the sum of these activities by the companies that happens both between the different countries
and within the country. In context with Unilever, the shift in the global has an effect on this
company. It affects their sales on the foreign countries as well as it has also an effect on the
trading.
Ethical theories to make a sense of the actions of Unilever
Ethical theories describe the viewpoints from which individuals or an organization
seek direction while they make decisions and the ethics are in play. The four broad categories
of this theory are deontology, utilitarianism, rights, and virtues(Ayoko., 2022).
Deontology: - When it comes to ethical decision-making, the deontological class of
ethical theories asserts that organization should stick to their obligations and duties. In
relation to Unilever, this indicates that their company will carry out their responsibilities to
another organization because doing so is considered ethically proper.

Utilitarianism: - These theories are based on the capability of an organization to
determine the implication of the actions made by them. There are two types of utilitarianism
such as rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism. Unilever follows the theory of rule
utilitarianism that provides advantages to most of their customers by performing the activity
with fairness and abiding by the law.
Unilever ethical performance and the limitation of ethical theories used by this
company
The ethical performance of Unilever is said to be good because this company strictly
follow the ethical principles and the theories of ethics are used appropriately by them. The
code policies of this company show their ethical behaviours that all the level of employees
must validate when they are working for them. This company publish their code of principles
in the marketplace and then expect from all the other businesses to work with them by setting
up equally high principles. They basically offer the value of responsibility, respect, integrity
and their code of business principle is a very ethical statement which shows the way they
operate(Lu., and et. al., 2020).
The theories used by this company are deontology and utilitarianism and these
theories have some limitation too. It helps the company to take an appropriate direction and
perform the activities regarding it but these theories also limit the organization to conduct the
work according to the obligations and duties that are set up by the company. The company
can not perform the activities that are not following the obligations that are made up by an
organization in order to smooth functioning. The rule utilitarianism theory also provides
advantages to most of the consumers of this company but it also states that they can not
conduct the activities by not following the law.
Recommendation for Unilever to improve their ethical response to the megatrend
The megatrends have a great impact on the Unilever productivity and their operations.
Most of the companies usually does not able to correctly adhere to the ethical principles at the
time of dealing with the megatrend. The recommendation to improve the ethical response to
the megatrend is to abide by the laws in dealing with significant megatrends such as climate
change, global economic shift and rise in technology. The employees of company should
follow the guidelines and principles set up the company because it will improve the ethical
response to megatrend(Zhao., Zhang, and Kwon., 2018).

Conclusion
From the above report, it has been concluded that CSR activities plays a vital role in
an organization and the ethical performance of Unilever in response to climate change is
great. The above report has also discussed about the various CSR activities as well as code of
ethics of the Unilever. It has also been analysed that Unilever has adopted the societal
approach in conducting CSR. The above report has also stated that the pandemic has affected
the megatrends as well as it has also discussed and reflects that these megatrends have a great
impact on the operations of Unilever(Chang, and Lee., 2020). At last, the ethical theories that
are followed by Unilever are deontology and utilitarianism as well as its limitations are
discussed in the above report.

References
Books and Journals
Saha, R., and et. al., 2020. Effect of ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility on
firm performance: A systematic review. Corporate Social Responsibility and
Environmental Management, 27(2), pp.409-429.
Walzel, S., Robertson, J. and Anagnostopoulos, C., 2018. Corporate social responsibility in
professional team sports organizations: An integrative review. Journal of Sport
Management, 32(6), pp.511-530.
Tourigny, L., and et. al., 2019. Ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility in China:
A multilevel study of their effects on trust and organizational citizenship
behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 158(2), pp.427-440.
Doshmanli, M., Salamzadeh, Y. and Salamzadeh, A., 2018. Development of SMEs in an
emerging economy: does corporate social responsibility matter?. International
Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 17(2), pp.168-191.
Whait, R.B., and et. al., 2018. What do we know about tax aggressiveness and corporate
social responsibility? An integrative review. Journal of cleaner production, 204,
pp.542-552.
De Roeck, K. and Farooq, O., 2018. Corporate social responsibility and ethical leadership:
Investigating their interactive effect on employees’ socially responsible
behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(4), pp.923-939.
Jones, D.A. and et. al., 2019. Advances in employee-focused micro-level research on
corporate social responsibility: Situating new contributions within the current state
of the literature. Journal of Business Ethics, 157(2), pp.293-302.
Nave, A. and Ferreira, J., 2019. Corporate social responsibility strategies: Past research and
future challenges. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 26(4), pp.885-901.
Al Mubarak, Z., Hamed, A.B. and Al Mubarak, M., 2018. Impact of corporate social
responsibility on bank’s corporate image. Social Responsibility Journal.
Ayoko, O.B., 2022. Leadership, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. Journal of
Management & Organization, 28(1), pp.1-8.
Lu, J., and et. al., 2020. Modified Carroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility to
enhance organizational performance of SMEs industry. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 271, p.122456.
Zhao, H., Zhang, F. and Kwon, J., 2018. Corporate social responsibility research in
international business journals: An author co-citation analysis. International
Business Review, 27(2), pp.389-400.
Chang, J.I. and Lee, C.Y., 2020. The effect of service innovation on customer behavioral
intention in the Taiwanese insurance sector: the role of word of mouth and corporate
social responsibility. Journal of Asia Business Studies.