Unilever claims that corporate social responsibility, including environmentalism, is at the heart of its business. However, the transition to a responsible and sustainable company is an ongoing process. Unilever has attracted some criticism from activists on not achieving the high aims and goals the company has communicated publically and internally. Despite the criticisms, Unilever has been at the forefront of its industry to initiate processes and create transparency in in its operations, especially regarding the environment. Even in its infancy, Unilever had difficulty balancing ideals with business goals. Unilever's founding companies produced products made of oils and fats, principally soap and margarine. At the beginning of the 20th century their expansion nearly outstripped the supply of raw materials. In an effort to reduce increasing costs due to World War I and growing limitations on supplies, former business rivals join forces, at first in the form of trade associations. These companies set up negotiations intending to prevent others from producing the same types of products but instead they merge to create Unilever. After struggling through the Great Depression and World War II, one of the main products companies were trying to develop was detergent. Soaps are made of materials found in nature and are break down naturally in the environment. A big drawback from using soap is that the minerals in water react with those in the soap, leaving an insoluble film or can tint clothes gray. Detergents are synthetic and were developed during World War II when oils to make soap were scarce. Each geographic area required a different kind of product depending on the way consumers washed their clothes and the type of water available to them. Detergents react less to minerals in water, have superior cleaning powers and do not form insoluble deposits in plumbing systems in hard water. The breakthrough to develop a synthetic detergent came from Unilever’s rival, Procter & Gamble with the product, Tide. Unilever quickly follows Procter & Gamble’s lead with using their own research to develop detergents of their own. The foam the detergents left in sewage systems and rivers became a major issue by the late 1950s. The new detergents were made using petrochemicals. Petrochemicals are discovered to be damaging to the environment and are considered unhealthy to humans, likely contributing to a range of diseases, including cancer. As a result, by 1965 Unilever had introduced biodegradable products in the United States, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. As Unilever continued to grow globally, acquiring factories, distribution sites and customers worldwide its focus on its global impact began to grow as well. The company participated in initiatives to source sustainable supplies of raw materials, support local communities and contribute to protecting the environment. However, at this point, Unilever’s policy on the environment and other social issues was decentralized and part of the responsibility of the local management teams. The main task for the company was to determine what policies and activities were carried out a local level. Unilever created its department of Corporate Social Responsibility in the 1990s to gather this information. Before creating a unifying policy imposing certain values, the company had to know what was currently occurring. Up until this point of self-assessment values carried out by particular products and brands were different per product group and country. During these years starts were made at separate issues concerning sustainability and environmentalism to develop and promote consistent policies. The Marine Steward Council was co-founded in 1996 by Unilever with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) to establish a global standard for sustainable fishing. Unilever was one of the world’s biggest buyers of frozen fish and all suppliers were asked to operate according to Marine Steward Council standards. Unilever committed to purchase all fish from sustainable sources by 2005. A Sustainable Agriculture Program was started around the same time to develop sustainable policies for Unilever’s most important agricultural crops such as tea, palm oil, spinach and peas. Field trials were started with farmer groups in various countries with the goal of moving away from intensive agriculture, preventing deforestation and promoting fully sustainable agricultural systems. One of the main crops for Unilever has been Palm Oil. The oil produced from the seeds of the palm plant are used in both snack foods and in the health and beauty products the company produces. In 2003, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was founded with the Worldwide Fund for Nature and it started to draft the framework document on criteria for palm oil sustainability. The thought was that success in this area can be disseminated across other major vegetable oil crops as well. Once Unilever had a sense of current practices and surveyed concerns and existing patterns of policies, it used this information for a comprehensive self-assessment report and created the possibility to start forms of measurement and data collecting that can be used for metrics and benchmarking. The first Code of Business Principles was published in 1996. This was the first attempt at stating was the company policy was going to be about many issues, including the environment. In 2000, the first edition of Unilever’s Social Review was released. These social reviews would report on issues companywide around the world and would also communicate timetables the company would follow as it developed its Corporate Social Responsibility. Unilever actively promotes increased awareness of the environment. Unilever’s strength of long standing citizenship in local communities helped the company have a greater understanding of local issues and resources. Knowledge of the local cultures also helped Unilever spread the policies of reducing the environmental impacts of operations and products while promoting sustainability per the company’s global initiatives. Despite the interest and development of such initiatives, Unilever has not had a pristine record, environmentally speaking. There have been areas of concern through the years regarding intensive farming, non-biodegradable materials in packages and in factory run off. In particular, the incidents of deforestation in Indonesia and mercury dumping in India demonstrate how a huge entity such as Unilever has people who want to do more environmentally and people who do not. In 2008, Greenpeace, a global environmental group, accused Unilever of buying palm oil from suppliers who are destroying Indonesian rainforests due to deforestation, displacement of local people and destruction of native habitats for endangered species, namely Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus. This was especially embarrassing for the company as it was a founder of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Public pressure drew a quick response from Unilever. Unilever immediately intervened and halted activities subject to a result of a thorough environmental assessment. Unilever reveals a plan to obtain all of its palm oil from sources that are certified as sustainable by 2020. In 2001, it was discovered by Greenpeace and local authorities that Unilever had dumped more than 289 tons of mercury in the town of Kodiakanal, India. Unilever denied the dumping, blaming a local scrap dealer, but does admit to a breach of guidelines. Mercury exposure is known to cause birth defects, deteriorate the nervous system and corrode skin and mucous membranes among other symptoms. The Unilever factory was immediately closed. People, soil and the local water were polluted with mercury. Unilever begins cleanup of the local soil and water. In 2003, about 289 tons of mercury bearing scrap, factory waste and elemental mercury is sent back to the United States for recycling. This is significant because it marks the first time that industrial waste has been sent back to the country of origin for recycling. Unilever is still in the process of soil remediation work at the factory site and will do so until evaluation from a local environmental board. Unilever continues to deny that workers were exposed to mercury. In order for Unilever to succeed, high standards of corporate behavior toward communities and the environment are mandatory. As the consumer market in emerging and developing countries in Southeast Asia and India continue to grow, companies must be shown to address those local concerns honestly and responsibly. Companies are seeing the benefits of sustainability. No longer is looking at the economic performance of entities enough. Shareholders, investors, managers, and leadership are looking at how their enterprise affects their people, planet, and profits. Unilever’s future success depends upon being able to decouple growth from their environmental footprint, while at the same time increasing positive social impacts. These are the central objectives of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan which was launched in November 2010. Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, states “It is important to be a capitalist at heart but it is even more important to be a capitalist with a heart.”

Works Cited
Care2:Make a difference. the Difference between detergent and soap. 2012. Web Site. 12 October 2012. ehow.com. The Harmful Effects of Petrochemicals on the Environment. 2012. Web Site. 12 October 2012.
FNV Mondiaal. Company Profile Unilever. Corporate Study. Amsterdam: SOMO, 2005. Document.
Greenpeace. How Unilever's Palm Oil Suppliers are Burning Up Borneo. 21 April 2008. Web Site. 12 October 2012.
—. Return to sender: Unilever ships mercury back to USA from India. 17 April 2003. Web Site. 16 October 2012.
Unilever. About Us: Our History:Unilever. 2012. Web Site. 16 October 2012.
—. "Unilever's Fish Sustainability Initiative." 2002. www.unilver.com. Document. 13 October 2012.