CSR and Sustainable Development:

The case of a large company

Submitted by

Group 2

Anusha L Narayanan
Ayush Singla
Mona
Parth Malik
Swarnajit Saha 1
Introduction to CSR and Sustainable Development
● Corporate social responsibility is a business model and a concept that takes many different forms
depending on industry and company type
● It helps a company to be socially responsible and accountable to all its stakeholders
● The three basic principles of Corporate Social Responsibility are
○ Sustainability: Effect of the actions taken in the present day in the future
○ Accountability- Organisations activities affecting the external environment and the organisation
taking up responsibility for the actions that it performs
○ Transparency- Pertinent facts are not disguised by the organisation while reporting its activities on
a public forum.

The definition of sustainability starts from the fact that if resources are used in the present, they are no longer
available for use in the future.
● Thus sustainable development is the idea that human societies must live and meet their needs without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

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Brundtland Report
The Brundtland report concentrates on the following seven strategic aspects of sustainable development.
1. Reviving Growth
2. Changing Quality of Growth
3. Meeting key needs
4. Ensuring a sustainable population
5. Enhancing and conserving the resource base
6. Managing Risk and use of technology
7. A healthy mix of environment and economics in decision making

Triple Bottom line approach Practical Approach

Triple Bottom Line focuses on three aspects of Revision in the components of sustainability
performance. leaves us with the following components
1. Economic
1. Social influence
2. Social
2. Environmental impact
3. Environmental
3. Organisation culture
4. Finance 3
Hindustan Unilever (HUL)
“Our vision is to grow our business while decoupling our environmental footprint from our growth
and increasing our positive social impact .”

“Our mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care
with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life”

● HUL is the subsidiary of British firm Unilever

● Close to 90% of Indians use products by HUL
● HUL has been a trendsetter towards making sustainable living a commonplace
● Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP)” launched in 2010 is creating sustainable growth through the
company’s world-famous brands
● The main goals of USLP are
○ Improving the health and wellbeing of 1 billion people
○ Reducing environment impact by half
○ Enhance livelihood for millions of people
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Initiatives and activities of HUL Domex Toilet Academy-

A) Improving Health and Well Being ● In partnership with eKutir, a social enterprise, the program
trains micro-entrepreneurs who help to execute the process
in rural areas by supplying and building toilets
Hand Wash behaviour change Program- ● Since 2014 the initiative has reached out to over 15,000
people by building 3000 toilets
● The program promotes the advantages of washing hand
with soap at key time like before food, as handwashing
Asha Daan-
can reduce the risk of diarrhoea diseases by over 40%
● The Company has also entered partnership with CIFF
● HUL almost take care of over 400 infants, destitute men
(Children’s Investment fund) and Bihar Government to
and women, and HIV-positive patients at Asha Daan
promote Handwashing and prevent childhood illnesses
and morality
Sanjivani-
Safe Drinking Water-
● There are a total of two vans which are allocated to the
● Pureit was launched at a price of Rs.1600, However to project, each van has one male doctor, one female doctor,
reach the bottom of the pyramid, HUL has partnered two nurses, a medical attendant, and a driver
with many NGO’s and Micro-Finance institutions. ● Till now more than 2,75,000 have taken benefit from the
● Till now Pureit has provided 100 billion litre of water initiative
which is safe to drink “As safe as boiled”

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B) Reducing Environment Impact and promote Sustainability

Water Conservation Projects-

● Under this programme there are two sub initiatives called MITTRA and Gundar basin water conservation project
● Under the MITTRA initiative HUL has constructed dams, to provide safe drinking water and planting more trees on buds
● Under the Gundan Basin project, HUL implemented organising farmers, landless labourers, and women into an association
of each tank level for mismanagement of waste

Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat-

● On ground behavioural change model: Encourages people to wash hands 5 times a day and use the toilet for defecation
& adopt safe drinking practice.
● Mass Media Campaign: Country wide campaign targeting 75Mn people with the idea ‘Haath Munh aur Bum, Bimari
Hogi Kam’

Environment and Sustainability-

● The alternatives like biogenic fuels, solar energy have contributed to the program.
Water usage in the manufacturing process has reduced by 44% as compared to the
2008 baseline
● Major achievements have come from reusing treated water in gardening, toilet
flushing, and harvesting rainwater
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C. Enhancing Livelihoods

Project Shakti:
• Purpose is the empowerment of rural women financially. HUL contacts local self help groups and
appoints one member as Shakti Entrepreneurs (SE), commonly referred as 'Shakti Ammas'
• After being trained about the products she receives stocks from the rural distributor at a discount below
the price at which the products are sold in the normal course
• HUL has around 1.20 lakh of women entrepreneurs across 18 states
• Sales from this project contribute 10% of the rural turnover of HUL

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Fair & Lovely Foundation
• Promoting education, education and employment enhancing vocational skills among children,
women, elderly and the differently abled along with providing livelihood enhancement projects
• The Foundation identifies the most academically exceptional girls from financially weak
backgrounds and offers scholarships to them.
• Over 0.5 million girls re-imagine their future and learn skills relevant to their future employment

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Ankur

• It is a centre for education for otherwise challenged children at the Doom Dooma in Assam
• HUL provides shelter to the underprivileged members of the society; these include abandoned, challenged
children, the HIV-positive and therefore the destitute
• HUL funds the annual maintenance of the premises, however the Missionaries of Charity take care of the
inmates of the premises at Doom Dooma
• Inspired by the success of Ankur two more initiatives Kappagam and Anbagam were launched on the
same lines

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D. Other Initiatives

1. Project Sunlight
• Purpose of this is to make sustainable living a desirable and achievable idea
• Launched on 20 November 2013 , Universal Children's Day, in Brazil, Indonesia, the UK, India, and the
US
• designed to appeal to people in all these countries, and in particular parents, encouraging them to join what
HUL sees as an ever growing community of people who want to make the world a better place for their
children and future generations
• This project was benefited by the wealth of Unilever’s consumer insight

2. Relief funds/donations
• Initiative for contribution to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund or any other fund acknowledged by
the Central Government for socioeconomic development and relief and welfare of the Scheduled Tribes, the
Scheduled castes, other backward castes, minorities and women of the country
• During Kerala floods HUL donated Rs 1 crore towards chief minister distress relief fund

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Controversy of Kodaikanal Mercury Poisoning

● What happened? - HUL was accused of dumping glass contaminated with Mercury behind its
factory
● Parties involved - HUL, Madras High Court, TNPCB and public interest groups
● Alleged Impact
○ Workers complained of kidney related diseases
○ Contamination of soil

HUL’s Stance on the Issue

Demands by Public Interest Groups
• Maintained integrity, honesty and openness
• Reverse Dumping
• Scrap was sold to dealer without proper
• Remediation of site
• procedure
Addressing the health concerns of workers
• Ex-gratia payment to 591 workers

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HUL’s Sustainable Living Plan Goals

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Sustainable Development Goals

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Purpose of HUL

Sustainable Living Plan of HUL

is meant to have a sustainable
environment for people which
can be achieved by
1. Brands
2. Companies
3. People

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 Achievements
Water Fairness Inclusive Business
Halved the usage of Minimum wage for Providing insurance and
water since 2010 workers through fair credit for small scale
compensation business

Opportunities for Health & Hygiene Nutrition

Women Improved health and Proportion of product
Women participation hygiene of 1.3 billion portfolio with highest
increased to 51% in people nutritional standards to 60%
2020

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Biggest Achievements

Greenhouse Gas Waste and Packaging Sustainable Sourcing

Emissions
● 32% decrease in ● Usage of
● Currently operating usage of plastics per sustainable raw
with 100% customer materials increased
renewable grid ● Zero waste to from 14% to 62%
electricity in landfills ● 88% sustainably
manufacturing ● 96% decrease in sourced crops for
operations disposable waste usage in its
● 65% decrease in per tonne of products
carbon dioxide production
emissions

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Learnings from HUL’s Activities

Environmental Collaboration with

Commitment to conduct sustainability and different stakeholders
the operations with Growth need not including Governments,
integrity and respect, in to be conflicting NGOs, IGOs, Suppliers,
the interest of Farmers, and Distributors
stakeholders, and in line to tackle the challenges
with Code of Business faced by the society
Principles.

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Recommendations
Introduction of
proper metrics to
03
measure actual social
impact of the
initiatives
HUL should structure a
well-defined ‘Corporate
Social Agenda’
01 02
Better utilization
of CSR funds

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Thank You
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