Critical Analysis of Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan and its Impact

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan, examining its objectives, implementation, and impact on the company's business strategy. The report begins with an introduction to Unilever and the context of the plan, highlighting the company's shift towards sustainability under CEO Paul Polman. It then uses Porter's five forces model to analyze the competitive environment. The report then delves into the core of the plan, evaluating its three main missions: improving health and well-being, reducing environmental impact, and enhancing livelihoods. It discusses the plan's initiatives, including sustainable brands, external partnerships, and marketing strategies. The report also addresses criticisms of the plan and offers recommendations for improvement, including expanding the brand portfolio and increasing investment in research and development. Finally, the report provides a historical forecast of key performance indicators.

RUNNING HEAD: UNILEVER LIVING PLAN
Unilever Sustainable Living Plan critical study
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Introduction:
The Unilever Company is considered to be one of the leading multinational co-
operations. The company is reputed for owning a plethora of consumer product brands in a
variety of sectors like food, personal care, cleansing, beverage and others. Unilever Company,
like most of the companies having a considerable amount of strength holds a capacity of
exploring their market areas (Lawrence, Joanne, Andreas Rasche, and Kevina Kenny).
Moreover, this company is backed off by several key global brands that give the company
strength and courage to enter in foreign markets. When Paul Polman was appointed as the new
CEO of the company the company was facing a long term decline. In order to improve the
condition he decided to change some strategies in the business and introduce the Unilever
Sustainable Living Plan which aimed at the attainment of the core sustainability goals. The plan
has been directly linked with the earning and returns and is evaluated with its capacity of driving
growth, reducing costs, attracting talents and mitigating risks. This sustainable plan mainly
highlights three major missions which are “improving health and well being”, “Reducing the

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environmental impact” and finally “Enhancing livelihoods” (Polman, and Bhattacharya). Each
mission has been established with a set of concrete goals. The present report will look into a
detailed analysis of the sustainability plan and will measure its effectiveness to forecast the
future trend. The report will also analyze the context of the company through porters five force
analysis model in understanding the effectiveness of the implementation. At the end it will duly
recommend few alternatives for better sustainability.
Analysis of the problem area using Porter’s five force:
The current economic decision that has emerged worldwide is an important factor that affects the
operation of any business. Unilever being a large global company prioritizes mainly on the
competition and the bargaining power of customers in the industry. The competitive rivalry has
been viewed as the most important and strongest external forces that affect the sustainability of
Unilever. There are many firms in the industry that produces consumer goods which in turn
creates a strong force on Unilever. The number and size of these new entrants are comparatively
on higher side and Unilever will need a strong distribution network in order to cope up with the
problem. However, the loyal customer brand that the company has is a cushion for Unilever. It is
easy for consumers to shift effectively from one firm to another. Thus Unilever has to face a
strong competition in this regard (Murphy, Patrick , and Caitlin. Murphy).
A vast amount of industry environment of Unilever depends on the consumer’s response towards
the product. This has a high chance that the buyers will influence the business performance of
Unilever to a large extent. Unilever had to address to the external factors like the low switching
cost and high quality of information. The low switching cost will eventually make the consumer
to transfer from Unilever’s product to another product. The external factor contributes to the high
power of bargaining by the bargaining power of the buyers. Suppliers impact the industry of

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Unilever’s environment as it affects the level of supply that is available to firms. Finally the
company has high threat of substitute product because of the low alternative price offer by other
substitute companies. The low nature of switching cost and the enhanced quality affects the
business of Unilever. In such situation the sustainable plan was a responsive approach towards
the above mentioned problem.
The Sustainable Living Plan Analysis:
The Sustainable Living Plan of the Unilever Company focuses on the achievement of the three
significant objectives in the year 2020.
1. “The organization will help more than one billion individuals in improving the wellbeing and
prosperity.
2. The Company will target lessening the ecological effect of the items to half.
3. the organization would source the horticultural crude material in an all out supportable way.”
(Mizera, 2013).
Detailed around these three objectives , the site of the organization offers different models just as
measurements on the methods for accomplishing objectives in the territories of sustenance,
wellbeing and cleanliness, ozone harming substance, squander, economical sourcing, water and
better jobs. Supportability specialists and green websites valued this feasible arrangement.
Nonetheless, a closer investigation of the arrangement will uncover that this technique is

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progressively a worldwide system taken on some portion of the organization to fortify their base
as the transnational business. The examination of this worldwide technique should be possible by
appropriately surveying the advantages and issues of the activities taken in the practical living
plans:
1. Usage of the practical brands:
With the venture of the physical, intellectual and passionate energies in the exhibition of
the reasonable plans, Polman concentrated on the manageability as the center procedure of the
organization (.Ionescu-Somers, Aileen M., and Jacqueline Brassey) He connected
maintainability not just with the business achievement, the organization has been depending on
the key association with supportable brands, Non-administrative associations, International
association, and different ventures that have moved towards supportability. In the portfolio, the
organization is concentrating more on the economical brands where the primary projection is the
nearly nil negative ecological effect.
Building External Partnership supporting USLP.
The CEO and his supervisory group has concentrated on the main of gatherings,
facilitating discussions just as visiting activities to frame new dreams and expanding
interchanges. For the advancement of the reasonable arrangement, Polman has been meeting
press and talking with examiners. He additionally centered around the associations with the
NGOs, providers and others and enormous difficulties that would successfully influence the
partners. The usage of the "Accomplices to win" program has brought about the marking of
countless understandings by the providers. It banded together with the main NGOs like Unicef,

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Oxfam, Rainforest Alliance or WWF. It has likewise teamed up with the administrations at
neighborhood or national level around the world (Dentoni and Veldhuizen ).
3. Creative Marketing Strategies:
For the advertising system, the organization joins the methodology with the social
venture alongside the needs of the USLP. For instance, the organization changed the point of
view about the cleanser commercial by changing the slogan of Persil clothing brands from
"Persil washes more white" to "dirt is good. This spotlights on the mother's enthusiasm for the
development of her kid. The organization has additionally made instructive crusade a compelling
apparatus for the raising of the mindfulness for the Unilever brands like Dove or close up. It
likewise leads some mindfulness related projects like the hand wash mindfulness in
schools.”( Sim, Sarah, Henry King, and Edward Price)
Problem area solved:
1. Job Engagement:
One of the most important areas solved through the initiative of this sustainability plan is the
engagement of the customers as well as the employees in the total process. The company,
through their strife for market development, not only engages the company’s 165,000
employees, but also the supply chain of 5 million people. Over 2 million people are involved
in thinking about the ne process worldwide. This engagement has not only ushered in a sense
of customer satisfaction, but also a sense of corporate responsibility. In order to take into
account the employees’ enthusiasm, Polman himself took the initiative of explaining the long
term goals, the economic benefit of the sustainable living plan etc.
2. Implication of the term sustainability:

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The concept of sustainability has been deeply endorsed within the plan. Since the company was
losing the reputation constantly with their antagonistic attitude towards nature and providing an
unhealthy work environment, the company focused upon the enhancement of the corporate social
responsibility to enhance the brand image further.
Criticism of the Plan:
It has been argued by various scholars that the sustainable living plan as proposed by the
CEO, has basically less implications on the sustainability issues. These are more propaganda
agendas for economic revival of the company. The following criticisms have been put forward
by the critics.
The company has initiated the segment of “cleanliness” where the customers will have the
opportunity of discovering the data about a product and watching videos that will clarify the idea
of how the utilization of a particular product by Unilever like toothpaste water purifier r
cleansers will improve the life of the new generation and keep them away from ailing issues.
urging clients for washing their hands has been seen as a sensible exertion. However, such
depiction is true for any other cleanser and does not uplift the speciality of Unilever (Kathrin.).
The product analyser section that the website of the company offers is dedicated for evaluating
the natural effect that is rendered by 1600 products of Unilever over their lifecycles. However,
this process is an ambiguous one since the customer will learn only an overview and not the
exact method. For example, a customer will learn that the most impactful use of waters is being
done while a consumer is washing the clothes. The information analyzer however does not
provide any data regarding the way in which Unilever will bring down the effects of the product.
For example, it could have provided information about the less toxicity in their detergent or how
the use of products will lessen the use of more water. The leaders who formulated the

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sustainable living plan may have thought that the impact of consumer while using the product
and the impact of suppliers while providing the raw materials is so vast a duty that it would just
bode well to start reducing at this point.
The living plan has still now referred to just a couple of brands and their endeavour in
sustainability. The classification, “sustainable sourcing” depicts that the organization of Unilever
has entered into a partnership with the rainforest action network around the sustainability cocoa
farming. The ultimate objective is to source all the cocoa available reasonably for their brand
magnum that has started since 2015. At present, the company sources 10% of the total request
sustainably. In this way, they have been improving in their goal. However, they do not have a
clear roadmap towards the goal. They generally tend to solicit customer’s response as to how
they react to the demonstration of showing that they are purchasing a ice cream that has been
sourced sustainably. In various cases, it has been seen that the customers have responded
positively. But the rate of sourcing of the products are done for a little amount for the economic
gain and articulations like this is often viewed as green washing.
Recommendations and Forecasting:
1. The analysis of the plans for the company through the light of Asnoff Matrix suggests
that the inclusion of more brands within the portfolio will enhance the business
development. The inclusion of the idea of sustainability within these aligning brands will
increase the brand identity of Unilever. The company can also take into account the
evaluation of the current brands that they have within the portfolio. (Siddique, Fahad Bin,
and Iffat Sultana)

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2. Focusing more on the sustainability issue will require more stress on the research and
development plan. The company can invest more on research and development to
improve their products and come out with more scientific cause as to why their products
are better.
Historica
l
Forecas
t
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
health
care 31972 34,616 35759 36238 39313 41529
personal
care 7827.2 78688 7748.34 8533.05 8%
food 9854.84 8175.31 9474.57
11292.2
7 11%
beverages 9043.92 9738.57
10523.0
7 11392 12505 12%
hygiene 2217 2397 2527.83 2692.94 12%
total
62930.9
6
135631.
9
68050.8
1
72167.2
6 43%

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Reference List:
Bartlett, Christopher A. "Unilever’s New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability."
(2015).
Ionescu-Somers, Aileen M., and Jacqueline Brassey. "Unilever’s Super Stretch Goal for
2020." Managing Sustainable Business. Springer, Dordrecht, 2019. 623-635.
Jansen, Kathrin. "Unilever–Sustainable Living Plan." Retrieved May 2 (2018).
Lawrence, Joanne, Andreas Rasche, and Kevina Kenny. "Sustainability as opportunity:
Unilever’s sustainable living plan." Managing Sustainable Business. Springer, Dordrecht, 2019.
435-455
Mizera, Sue. "Sustainability at Unilever: An interview with Lesley Thorne, Global Sustainability
Manager." Journal of Brand Management 20.3 (2013): 191-195.
Murphy, Patrick E., and Caitlin E. Murphy. "Sustainable living: Unilever." Progressive Business
Models. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 263-286.
Polman, Paul, and C. Bhattacharya. "Engaging employees to create a sustainable
business." Stanford Social Innovation Review 14.4 (2016): 34-39.
Siddique, Fahad Bin, and Iffat Sultana. "Unilever Sustainable Living Plan: A Critical Analysis."
Sim, Sarah, Henry King, and Edward Price. "The role of science in shaping sustainable business:
unilever case study." Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology; Clift, R., Druckman, A., Eds (2016):
291-302.

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