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Unilever is folding together its sustainability and external communications departments, months after scaling back its environmental targets as the company shifts its sustainability strategy.
The maker of Dove soap and Cornetto ice creams, which is in the middle of a wide-ranging restructure and cost-cutting programme, will combine the two previously separate roles of chief sustainability officer and global head of communications and corporate affairs into one role, according to an internal email to all staff seen by the Financial Times.
Since chief executive Hein Schumacher set out to turn around Unilever’s performance last year, the company that was once seen as the poster child for ethical and environmental issues has taken a more “realistic” approach to sustainability, with fewer targets.
“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,” wrote chief executive Hein Schumacher in the update last week.
Chief sustainability officer Rebecca Marmot, who has a background in corporate affairs at Unilever, will take on the responsibility for external affairs from Paul Matthews, global head of communications & corporate affairs, who has stepped down from the business. The departments will also merge.
“Corporate affairs has to put the interests of the company first, and will therefore always spin accordingly,” said Jonathon Porritt, who advised Unilever on sustainability issues for 28 years, until March this year.
“Sustainability, as a function, should always be as mindful of the interests of the world and its people as of the company. No company serious about sustainability should seek to bring these two functions together,” he added.
Unilever declined to comment.
After 2015’s Paris Agreement, scores of companies set ambitious climate targets and sustainability became more prominent in corporate communications, with groups appointing chief sustainability officers with corporate affairs backgrounds to oversee the fast-growing function.
Many consumer goods groups have a dedicated CSO role, including Mars, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble. Others combine the role with corporate affairs, such as Reckitt and now Unilever, or with supply chains, such as Diageo.
One consultant familiar with the company said that while it was not a bad idea to merge the two functions, the new role should be part of the company’s executive committee. “If they don’t have a seat at the table, then they are not impacting, just executing,” they said.
In a recent interview with the FT, Schumacher said Unilever was shifting its focus away from sustainability advocacy to “execution”, adding that scaling back its ambitions was not an option given the growing environmental reporting requirements.
The sustainability strategy now is “tell, not show,” he said. “I think it’s more in tune with the reality,” he said.
Unilever, which has for over a decade set an example to its peers on sustainability issues, has drawn criticism for its new agenda, which campaigners have warned sets a bad precedent for other corporates tempted to back track on their ambitions.
The consumer goods giant announced in April that it was introducing a more “focused” strategy after the chief executive concluded some of the targets set by his predecessors were not achievable. The changes included extending deadlines and reducing the scale of environmental targets, such as its use of virgin plastics and circular packaging.
Schumacher told the FT that the company’s spend on sustainability had increased year on year.
“We haven’t taken any dollar out. It’s sometimes reported that it’s become less important because we’re putting more emphasis on profit . . . our spend on sustainability year on year is up, not down,” he said, declining to share numbers.
Unilever is not alone in reassessing its green agenda. Companies from Walmart to Shell have dropped or missed their emissions targets and other sustainability goals. Just this month, Coca-Cola drew fire from environmentalists after watering down its reuse and recycling goals.
At Unilever’s capital markets day last month, when Schumacher set out his action plan for the next five years, he also unveiled a new company purpose, “to brighten everyday life for all”, to replace the previous tagline, “to make sustainable living commonplace”, which was established by former chief executive and corporate sustainability champion Paul Polman.
Schumacher said that Polman “created awareness like no one else” but that the targets he set were unachievable. “You know what? He did the right thing, because he put the bar so high, even if we were to meet 80 per cent of that target, we would have never come so far if he hadn’t done that,” he said.
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