Key takeaways:
- The success of Unilever’s local weather transition motion plan relies on stricter rules for high-emitting sectors.
- The corporate will give up commerce teams that stay misaligned 12 months after being placed on discover.
- Unilever’s annual evaluation of trade affiliation is uncommon.
Unilever has distanced itself from two commerce associations as a result of their lobbying actions are misaligned with the buyer merchandise firm’s local weather coverage agenda.
In a single occasion, the corporate requested that the German Chemical Business Affiliation cease utilizing Unilever’s identify and brand in advertising and marketing supplies as a result of the group is out of step with Unilever’s advocacy positions on renewable vitality and carbon pricing.
Unilever can also be distancing itself from the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Business, which represents the pursuits of an ice-cream manufacturing plant in Covington. That relationship might be reviewed in late 2025, together with a number of others, after Unilever divests its ice cream enterprise.
The actions have been outlined in Unilever’s annual evaluation of the lobbying and political advocacy positions of greater than two dozen key trade organizations by which it has a membership curiosity.
The corporate belongs to greater than 600 commerce teams. These assessed — together with the Client Items Discussion board and the Private Care Merchandise Council — signify sectors the place extra stringent rules and insurance policies are wanted to drive local weather progress.
“Unilever is already making progress towards our local weather targets, however enabling authorities insurance policies will assist us go additional, sooner,” stated Rebecca Marmot, chief sustainability and company affairs officer at Unilever. “We’ve elevated our direct advocacy on local weather points to mirror that. We’d like commerce associations to do the identical, bringing their appreciable affect to the desk, and rising local weather engagement amongst their members.”
As a matter after all, Unilever would somewhat keep engaged with commerce organizations, to create constructive change. If a misalignment lingers for longer than a yr, the problem is taken up by the Unilever division that owns the connection. “At this level, we are going to decide whether or not to withdraw our membership and make our withdrawal public,” Unilever stated in its evaluation. “In some cases, there could also be a disagreement relating to positions taken, however Unilever could resolve that its pursuits are greatest served by retaining membership.”
Fewer commerce teams misaligned with decarbonization targets
Unilever’s most up-to-date evaluation, launched April 7, makes use of publicly out there info from analysis agency InfluenceMap. It discovered that 18 of the 26 evaluated organizations haven’t any “misalignment” with Unilever’s local weather coverage positions. That’s up from 13 of the 27 organizations thought-about in the 2024 version.
However solely 5 organizations are actively engaged in supporting local weather insurance policies, whereas 50 % are “passive” — that means they don’t communicate out both method. Unilever desires these organizations to do extra.
With one exception, the identical organizations have been evaluated within the two assessments.
“After final yr’s [report], Unilever outlined extra actions for commerce associations to take,” the corporate stated in its evaluation. “Many have been aware of requests, however extra work is required to verify these actions result in coverage modifications, particularly because the final evaluate was current.”
5 cross-cutting political priorities
Unilever’s local weather transition motion plan requires the corporate to actively interact on the next insurance policies:
- Persuade nations to undertake nationwide emissions discount plans that may maintain world temperature will increase to 1.5 levels Celsius
- Advocate applicable carbon pricing ranges
- Scale up renewable vitality capability, whereas phasing out fossil fuels
- Help forest safety and nature restoration
- Encourage the Greenhouse Fuel Protocol to evolve carbon accounting requirements to reward emissions reductions throughout company worth chains
Unilever ranks as a pacesetter among the many restricted group of firms that actively interact on local weather coverage, and it was highlighted in 2024 by InfluenceMap for its affect on commerce teams.
“The evaluate continues to lift the bar in driving greatest practices round how corporations needs to be asking for stronger local weather change insurance policies whereas strategically partaking with their commerce associations,” stated Deborah McNamara, govt director of advocacy nonprofit ClimateVoice.
Unilever is a vibrant spot at a time when many corporations within the U.S. have “stagnated or gone silent,” she stated. “I believe corporations must be asking over and over if sufficient is being completed, and the reply is definitively no. This evaluate nonetheless units the trail and exhibits what is feasible.”