Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
We want to see a society where everyone is treated equally. We're working to create a fairer, more socially inclusive world.
We believe in Caring for People and Planet
In brands that not only do less harm, but also do more good.
We are a €12 billion business with much-loved deodorant, skin cleansing and oral care brands including Dove, Rexona, Lux, Axe, Lifebuoy and Pepsodent. We hold leading category positions in deodorants and skin cleansing globally and the #1 or #2 position in oral care in the countries where we are present.
We are also home to Global Business Units including Elida Beauty, which provides dedicated management focus for a number of our value brands; Dollar Shave Club; and Unilever International, reaching underserved consumers around the world.
Through our Personal Care brands, we’re taking action to drive positive change.
We are advocates for new policies, laws and social norms that will promote inclusion, health and wellbeing for all members of society.
With more than 1 billion people using our products every day, we have an opportunity to use our scale for good. So that people and the planet can thrive together.
People Positive
Through our brands, we are helping to improve people’s health and wellbeing and advance equity and inclusion, aiming to reach 1 billion people per year by 2030.
For example, Dove’s Self-Esteem Project is helping instil body confidence in the next generation. Rexona’s Breaking Limits programme is helping young people overcome barriers to being active by funding community sports projects.
We’re building on our heritage, of over a century creating products that provide hygiene for people in need. With many years of delivering Lifebuoy education and handwashing programmes that empower people to protect themselves and their families from preventable diseases.
We’re using our reach and presence to defy stereotypes, to help drive change for a more inclusive future, as a People Positive Personal Care business.
We are aiming to positively impact billions of lives by working with others to achieve change, shaping norms, policies and laws.
Our areas of focus and goals
Improving people’s health and hygiene
We are working to ensure that more people have access to our programmes and products that can help support their physical health and mental wellbeing. And we’re teaming up with partner organisations to expand our programmes and reach.
We have strong foundations to build upon. We are continuing our long-established work in helping people adopt healthy habits like with handwashing with soap and thorough toothbrushing through our brand programmes from Lifebuoy and Smile. We are also expanding our focus into new areas like physical health and mental wellbeing with brands such as Rexona.
Driving gender equity
We are working to champion gender equity through the three areas where we can have the greatest impact: our advertising, our brand programmes and brand advocacy.
Through our advertising, we’re addressing gender bias and harmful gender stereotypes.
In our brand-led education and behaviour-change programmes, we are addressing the challenges experienced and barriers faced by women and other under-represented groups. Such brand programmes are providing access to resources to build skills or financial support as well as building confidence.
In advocacy, we are stepping up our efforts to influence progression and effect lasting change in systems, culture, and law. Current examples include the Dove Self-Esteem Project and Dove Men+Care’s work to ensure dads have the right financial support to take time off for paternity leave.
Championing equity, diversity and inclusion
We are increasing the number of advertisements portraying people from diverse groups and are committed to ending any digital alteration to change a person’s body shape, size, proportion or skin colour, across all advertising material.
We are delivering on Unilever’s social commitments, announced in January 2021. These include a pledge to spend €2 billion annually with businesses and suppliers owned and led by people from under-represented groups, and to increase the diversity of the people involved in the production of our advertising – on-screen and behind the camera.
And we are advocating for true equity and inclusion, helping to drive positive change. As part of our commitment to championing inclusion, we have eliminated the use of the word ‘normal’ across all our Personal Care products and communications, globally.
People Positive in action (5 items)
Swipe through the images to take a look at some examples of our People Positive work
Changing legislation and championing body confidence
Narrow beauty standards damage self-esteem, harm confidence and prevent people from fulfilling their potential. That’s why Dove is on a mission to spark positive change.
Supporting the right to be #FreeToLove
Since its launch in the 1960s, Closeup has focused on what matters most to people: the confidence to get closer to one another and the excitement of doing so.
Dove Men+Care’s support for Dads
Parental leave gives dads the chance to care for the people who matter most, at a time when support is often needed.
'H' stands for Handwashing
Handwashing with soap can significantly reduce the spread of preventable diseases, helping to save countless lives. For more than a century, this insight has shaped Lifebuoy’s mission to improve handwashing habits.
Inspiring millions to move more
Rexona believes in the power of movement to transform lives. Everyone has the right to move – whoever you are and however you move.
Planet Positive
When it comes to creating a Planet Positive Personal Care business, we will do less harm and more good for the natural world by protecting and regenerating 1.5 million hectares of land, forests and oceans by 2030. That’s more than we use to grow the renewable ingredients included in our beauty and personal care products.
By 2025, any plastic we use in our packaging will be recyclable, reusable or compostable across every brand worldwide.
Our Personal Care brands are contributing to Unilever’s €1 billion Climate & Nature Fund, through which we’re taking decisive action on issues from water preservation to reforestation, wildlife protection and more.
We’re also continuing to champion the use of science, not animals, to assure the safety of our products and ingredients, as we have for more than 40 years. And we’re sharing our research and expertise to drive systems change and help end animal testing for cosmetics in every part of the world.
Our areas of focus and goals
Regenerating nature and tackling climate change
As part of our aim not only to do less harm but also to do more good, we are committed to helping protect and regenerate 1.5 million hectares of land, forests and oceans by 2030. This is more land than we use to grow the renewable ingredients included across our beauty and personal care product portfolio.
Our Personal Care brands are investing in Unilever’s dedicated €1 billion Climate & Nature Fund – an initiative launched in 2020 as part of company-wide actions to fight climate change and protect nature. This money will be used to take decisive, meaningful action with projects likely to include landscape restoration, reforestation, carbon sequestration, wildlife protection and water preservation.
And business-wide, we’re committed to a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023, and to making our product formulations biodegradable by 2030, minimising their impact on water and aquatic ecosystems.
Less, better, no plastic
As part of Unilever’s global commitment to closing the loop on plastic, we’re contributing towards the removal of over 100,000 tonnes of plastic from our packaging entirely by 2025 and ensuring that any plastic we do use is recyclable, reusable or compostable.
Among the changes we made in 2020, Dove, our biggest Personal Care brand, switched to 100% recycled bottles across Europe and North America. And our Signal, Pepsodent and Closeup oral care brands are rolling out recyclable toothpaste tubes globally.
We’re working on refillable, reusable packaging too – launching pilot programmes around the world to test viability, learn from results and refine our approach.
Ending animal testing
At Unilever, we believe in using science, not animals, to assess product safety.
Unilever is recognised by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) as a company working for regulatory change, and we support calls for a worldwide ban on animal testing for cosmetics.
We’re working alongside lawmakers, animal protection organisations and like-minded companies and brands to drive this change, sharing the expertise we’ve gained in more than 40 years of pioneering alternatives to animal testing.
We believe people have a right to know how the products they choose and use are made. Dove, our biggest Personal Care brand, is PETA-approved, and we’re working on gaining this accreditation for more. Through our brands, we are raising consumer awareness and continuing to advocate for positive change and adopt approaches that provide greater transparency and deepen trust in our brands and business.
Planet Positive in action (6 items)
Swipe through the images to take a look at some examples of our Planet Positive work
Regenerating Tibet’s arid grasslands
Lux has helped plant more than 10 million sqm of grassland in Tibet over the past ten years. It’s part of the brand’s Go Green Go Lux campaign, where a small donation from the purchase of every bottle of Lux shower gel sold in China goes to support rural Tibetan communities.
Our partnerships to help end animal testing
Our scientists have been developing and using alternatives to animal testing to assess the safety of cosmetics since the 1980s. We believe that using human-relevant science and new technology is the best way to assess product safety, and for decades we’ve worked closely with governments and the scientific community all over the world to share our research.
Use science, not animals
We announced our support for calls to bring a global end to all animal testing for cosmetics back in 2018.
The refill revolution
Across our global business, we’ve pledged to halve the use of virgin plastic in our packaging by 2025 and remove 100,000 tonnes of plastic entirely.
Closing the loop on plastic
Post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic now accounts for more than 10% of Unilever's plastics footprint.
Solving the black plastic challenge
For Lynx (also known as Axe), black bottles are synonymous with the brand. They look great, but there’s a catch. Black plastic can be hard for sorting machines to detect at recycling plants. The infra-red light such machines use is absorbed by black pigment.