Unilever Merges Sustainability & External Communications Teams

According to an industry report, Unilever is now merging its sustainability and external communications divisions after confirming that it was reducing its environmental goals.

Unilever declared in April that it was reducing its environmental and social commitments.

Hein Schumacher, the CEO, subsequently revealed plans to weaken the company's ethical commitments on several topics, such as compensation and plastic usage.

“When you have a huge drought for several months but everything else is going fine, the attention is on climate. These days it’s about wars and rightly so, that’s at the forefront.

“I’m not going to shout that we’re saving the world, but I want to make sure that in everything that we do, that it is indeed better,” Schumacher said.

He maintained that the business may still have an impact on the four main sectors of nature, plastics, climate change, and human livelihoods.

In a recent internal email to all of its employees, Unilever stated that it now intends to merge the two formerly distinct positions of Global Head of Communications and Corporate Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer into a single position.

“Given the increasing extent to which the external policy environment impacts our commercial and sustainability ambitions, I have decided to bring corporate affairs, external communications, and sustainability together under one leadership role,” Schumacher said last week. Going by the report, Chief Sustainability Officer Rebecca Marmot will now take on the responsibility for external affairs from Paul Matthews, Global Head of Communications & Corporate Affairs, who has stepped down from the business.

In the third quarter of Unilever's fiscal year 2024, the company recorded sales amounting to approximately 15.2 billion euros, down from the previous quarter, when this figure amounted to about 16 billion euros.