Building a sustainable business
We see opportunities to grow our business by addressing some of the most important social and environmental challenges facing India today. We call this 'doing well by doing good'.
Scoping issue areas
While the issues are many, it is necessary to address them in a systematic manner to make a real difference to India. To ensure a deep impact instead of spreading thin across all issues, we have chosen three areas of impact.
These have been arrived at using following three filters:
- Millennium Development Goals which rank high for India.
- Issues our parent company Unilever is focusing on.
- Areas of capability and competence with which we can make meaningful impacts.
Building a robust strategy through stakeholder engagement:
Apart from the above three filters, we also spoke to external thought leaders and opinion formers about their expectation on issues that should be material to us. These expectations were then mapped with the areas in which HUL wanted to focus. The issues are divided in three categories:
- Priority issues: important issues which should be the key focus
- Issues to watch
- Basic issues: relevant to our operations and hence a must do
STAKEHOLDER | ||||
Priority Issues | Issues to Watch | Basic Issues | ||
HUL | Priority Issues | Nutrition & Hygiene
| Green House Gases
| |
Issues to Watch | Packaging | Education
| ||
Basic Issues | Corruption and Ethics
| |||
Based on the scoping process, HUL has identified:
Social | Economic | Environment |
- Address health issues through hygiene and nutrition | - Enhance livelihoods of
| - Improve eco efficiency of our operations |
Apart from the above three areas, the basic issues such as product safety, labour rights, employee health & safety, etc. have always been areas of focus and action for us.
Changing Scope of Corporate Responsibility (CR) | Doing Well | Doing Good |
Historically CR in India has been mainly seen as philanthropic actions of business houses. This is a myopic view of the impact that a business can tangibly have on the society. Corporate Responsibility, today, has widened its scope to cover the social, environmental and economic impacts of a company’s operations and that of its value chain. In the past doing well, which is reflection of financial results and doing good, which reflects the companies environmental & social initiatives in the communities were two different domains. The new era compels the integration of these two domains. At HUL, doing well & doing good have always been two sides of the same coin. | Grow markets Fuel Innovations Risk free Supply Chain & material security Attract and retain talent Corporate reputation | Address health issues through
Enhance livelihoods of vulnerable communities Improve eco efficiency of our
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