A REPORT

ON
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
IN
HINDUSTAN uniLeVER LIMITED

Corporate social responsibility

 In India
India - magnificent cultural treasures and bitter
poverty…
The exotic sound of Indian music & its rich varied heritage gives the glimpse of India’s cultural treasure
which is vast and the on the other hand if we see it with the perspective of a tourist then probably then it
conveys us  vivid picture of all the fascinating and conflicting impressions all the way on the trip to
India.

The marvelous Mogul and Maharaja palaces, mosques and temples are the one side are the real reason to
visit India, however the real life presents a very different picture from what the normal European ever
can imagine.

Inseparable from the magnificent cultural treasures through our minds and dreams go the pictures of the
unbelievable and unimaginable poverty of so many people right around us everywhere and all day
long. All our lives we'll never forget those terrible sights.

We did not know what it means to be faced with living conditions of the so-called "third world".
Beggars, misery and bitter poverty wherever you go. We gave alms to handicapped people and pleased
children with sweets, balloons and bananas ... however of course the single person can't help it. Thus we
have needed to take hand in hand for securing the future as well as improving present scenario. Thus a
lot can be achieved by the established firms that earn a million profit each year who contribute for social
welfare of the nation.

Several major CSR initiatives have been launched in India since the mid-1990s. Among these is the first
voluntary code of corporate governance, “Desirable Corporate Governance: A Code”, established in
April 1998. This was an initiative by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India’s largest industry
and business association. A National Foundation for Corporate Governance (NFCG) has been
established by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs... The purpose of the National Foundation for
Corporate Governance is to promote better corporate governance practices and raise the standard of
corporate governance in India towards achieving stability and growth.
"Corporate Social Responsibility is thus the continuing commitment by business to behave
ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the
workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”. Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) has been on the agenda in India for a considerable period. Most big Indian
corporations are engaged in some CSR activities. As is the case in many countries, the private sector is
generally more active in this area than the governmental/public sector.

According to “Doing good: Business and the sustainability challenge”, new research from the Economist
Intelligence Unit, it was seen that companies that saw their share price rise by at least 50 percent in the
last three years (share price climbers) place a greater importance on social and environmental goals than
companies with share prices that have declined by more than 10 percent (share price losers). But only a
few companies do csr who generate a good profit each year.

Social and environmental goals include improving environmental and human rights in supply chains,
where 40 percent of share price climbers rank this as an important priority versus 18 percent of share
price losers; reducing greenhouse gases (38% to 24%); and developing products which address social
and environmental problems (49% to 35%). Share price climbers also put a greater emphasis on social
and environmental considerations at board level.

Other key findings from the research include:

Forty percent of those in our survey believe additional regulation is necessary
to tackle social and environmental challenges. Another 50 percent say that voluntary
action is generally more effective, but that additional regulation may be required in some areas.
But this openness to new rules is combined with the desire for clearer guidance about what
government expects from business. Only 10 percent of executives in the survey say more
regulation in this area is likely to harm economic growth.
Communication, then the environment, is top corporate priorities on
sustainability. Given a list of 10 specific objectives relating to sustainability, companies
placed the highest priority overall on communicating their firm’s sustainability performance to
investors and stakeholders (61% selected this as “leading” or “major” priority). Environmental
issues took the next three spots overall: improving their environmental footprint through waste
reduction and use of recycled materials (57%); improving energy efficiency across global
operations (52%); and developing products that address sustainability issues (51%).
The supply chain is the weakest link. Extending sustainability policy to suppliers is the
area where companies gave themselves the worst marks: about one-fifth says their companies
have performed poorly in setting stronger supplier standards on both environmental and human
rights issues. About the same proportion have only implemented supplier controls in the last five
years.
Sustainability reporting needs more work. Although companies rate their performance
on communication highly, efforts regarding formal reporting are less advanced. Only 22 percent
of executives say their firms have formal Triple Bottom Line reporting, although a further 40
percent say they will adopt it within five years.
Sustainability does pay. Most executives (57%) say that the benefits of pursuing
sustainable practices outweigh the costs, although eight out of 10 expect any boost to profits to
be small. Specifically, sustainable practices can help reduce costs (particularly energy
expenditure), open up new markets and improve the company’s reputation. Part of this involves a
shift away from defensive behavior towards more active exploration of the opportunities
sustainability can present-so-called “sustainability 2.0″.

CSR CONSIDERATIONS & BENEFITS

 Many companies are only making token gestures towards CSR in tangential ways such as
donations to charitable trusts or NGOs, sponsorship of events, etc.

 Most companies believe that charity and phila

  Most companies use CSR as a marketing tool to further spread the word about their business.
For instance, donation of a token amount to some cause on purchase of a particular product.
The fact that companies are hiring advertising agencies for their CSR further highlights this.

Generally speaking, most companies seem either unaware or don’t care about CSR. However, all
companies can be considered to be an upward learning curve with respect to CSR and it is expected that
the situation will improve.

The companies involve in CSR activities not only for the social cause but also they gain some
benefits out of the it. The reason for companies doing are mentioned below-
- for economic, social, and environmental bottom lines
- to get ISO 14000 which reviews environmental impact
- community pressure to do so
- to enhance reputation
- as a branding exercise
- to improve community relations and public image
- to enable employees to enjoy new levels of responsibility and leadership skills
- to improve employee satisfaction, morale and loyalty
- to get a sense of fulfillment as a result of contributing to the community

COMPANY’S CONSIDERATION FOR CSR-

- education for employee families
- plant trees to offset own pollution
- labor welfare
- training courses
- supporting nearby hospital, school, etc.
- donating through own Charitable Trust
- minimizing garbage creation

Companies notions that they are doing CSR or don't need to:
- contributing to GDP of country
- providing employment
- don't pollute
- concentrating on better products for customers
- ensuring good working condition

Company profile

About HUL:

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Company.
With over 35 brands spanning 20 distinct categories such as soaps, detergents, shampoos, skin care,
toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, tea, coffee, packaged foods, ice cream, and water purifiers, the
Company is a part of the everyday life of millions of consumers across India.

It 6.3 million retail outlets reaching the entire urban population, and about 250 million rural consumers.
HLL is also one of India's largest exporters. It has been recognized as a Golden Super Star Trading
House by the Government of India. Presently, HLL has over 16,000 employees including over 1,200
managers. Its mission is to "add vitality to life."

In 1931, Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company,
followed by Lever Brothers India Limited (1933) and United Traders Limited (1935). The three
companies were merged in November 1956 and the new entity that came into existence after merger was
called as Hindustan Lever Limited. HLL offered 10% of its equity to the Indian public, and it was the
first among the foreign subsidiaries to do so. Currently, Unilever holds 51.55% equity in the company
while the rest of the shareholding is distributed among about 380,000 individual shareholders and
financial institutions. 

 HUL’S brands :

It constitutes - food care, home care, health care, personal care, and nutrition, water, and health hygiene
& beauty care brands. The brands like Lifebuoy, Lux, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond's,
Sunsilk, Clinic, Pepsodent, Close-up, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Knorr-Annapurna, Kwality Wall's
are household names across the country.
 Its Principal Competitors:

Nirma Ltd.; Jocil Ltd.; Nahar Industrial Enterprises Ltd.; Shrihari Laboratories P Ltd.; Ruchi
Infrastructure Ltd.; Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Healthcare Ltd.; Amrit Banaspati Company Ltd.;
Henkel SPIC India Ltd.; K S Oils Ltd.; Ultramarine and Pigments Ltd.; Vashisti Detergents Ltd.

 Sustainability strategies: HUL ‘s sustainability lies in the following points discussed below-

 Unilever Sustainable Living Plan: it believes in ‘small actions, big difference’. Thus the Plan
contains over 50 concrete targets that will-
 Help more than one billion people improve their health and well-being
 Halve the environmental impact of our products
 Source 100% of our agricultural raw materials sustainability

 Employees: Hul builds its employees capabilities by-

 - Instilling values 
- Ensuring health and safety 
- Developing responsible Human Resource (HR) practices and policies

 Ecosystem: HUL believes in ‘SUSTAINABLE LIVING’

 A large amount of the raw materials the company needs are derived from agriculture, so its
Sustainable Agriculture Programmed plays a key role in managing its upstream impact, aimed to
improve the eco-efficiency of their manufacturing operations, minimize resources used and
waste created. To manage the downstream impact, our research and product development teams
work towards reducing the environmental impact of our products and packaging through
reformulation and innovations. 

 
  Society : Creating a positive impact

In 2009, HUL contributed INR 30 crores towards community related initiatives. Its contribution in 2009
went either to long-term community investment partnerships or to commercial initiatives, with mutual
benefits for both -business and partners.

It also identified water conservation as an issue we would like to focus our energies on. So hul worked
in close partnership with its stakeholders to conserve precious drops of water. Water management has
been a key area of focus for HUL across the entire value chain. Therefore it engaged in community
projects to conserve water. It aims to conserve more than 20 billion liters of water by 2015.
HUL has embarked Dadra & Nagar
CSR ACTIVITIES IN HUL

It had been awarded for Best Corporate Social Responsibility Practice at the Social & Corporate
Governance Awards 08-09 by BSE, Nasscom Foundation and Times Foundation.
Till date HUL has done a lot of csr activities few are discussed as follows-

 GREENING BARRIERS- WATER CONSERVATION & HARVESTING:

HUL is committed to extending its efforts on water management to the larger community, and has
engaged in community projects in water adjacent to manufacturing sites.

It’s Water Conservation and Harvesting project has two major objectives:

A. to reduce water consumption in its own operations and regenerate sub-soil water
Tables at its own sites through the principles of 5R - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle,

Recover and Renew;

B. helps adjacent villages to implement appropriate models of watershed

Development.

 PROJECT SHAKTI- CHANGING LIVES IN RURAL INDIA:

This project was started in 2001 with the aim of increasing the company’s rural distribution reach as
well as providing rural women with income-generating opportunities. This is a case where the social
goals are helping achieve business goals.

The recruitment of a Shakhty Entrepreneur or Shakti Amma (SA) begins with the executives of HUL
identifying the uncovered village. The representative of the company meets the panchayat and the
village head and identify the woman who they believe will be suitable as a SA. After training she is
asked to put up Rs 20,000 as investment which is used to buy products for selling. The products are then
sold door-to-door or through petty shops at home. On an average a Shakti Amma makes a 10% margin
on the products she sells.

An initiative which helps support Project Shakti is the Shakti Vani programme. Under this programme,
trained communicators visit schools and village congregations to drive messages on sanitation, good
hygiene practices and women empowerment. This serves as a rural communication vehicle and helps the
SA in their sales.

The main advantage of the Shakti programme for HUL is having more feet on the ground. Shakti
Ammas are able to reach far flung areas, which were economically unviable for the company to tap on
its own, besides being a brand ambassador for the company. Moreover, the company has ready
consumers in the SAs who become users of the products besides selling them.

 LIFEBUOY SWASTHYA CHETNA- HEALTH & HYGIENE EDUCATION:

Lifebuoy's “Swasthya Chetna” (LSC) was a five-year health and hygiene education program initiated by
Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), the Indian arm of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) major,
Unilever. The program was formally launched in 2002, in eight states across India.

The objective of this program was to educate around 200 million people in rural and urban areas about
the importance of adopting good 'health and hygiene ‘practices. The program spread awareness about
germs and their adverse effects on health, and how proper 'health and hygiene ‘practices, such as bathing
and washing hands with soap could prevent diseases like diarrhea.
According to HLL, LSC was not a philanthropic activity, but a marketing program with a social benefit.
HLL sought to grow the Lifebuoy brand in India by attracting those consumers who never used soap. In
the process, the company sought to bring about a behavioral change by convincing people to use soaps
more frequently, thus creating more users for its brand. This program was also seen as a successful case
for public-private partnership.

Issues:

 Understand the rationale behind the Lifebuoy “Swasthya Chetna” initiative by Hindustan Lever
Limited (HLL) in India.

 Understand the issues related to brand management and repositioning in the personal wash soap
segment in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in India.

 Appreciate the role of public-private partnerships as a win-win situation for private entities,
governments, and individual consumers.

 Fair & lovely foundation:

The Fair & Lovely (FAL) Foundation aims at economic empowerment of women across India by
providing information, resources and support in the areas of education, career and enterprise. It
specifically targets women from low-income groups.

Fair & Lovely Shikhar: Fair & Lovely Shikhar, an initiative by Fair & Lovely, aimed to explore the
inspiring economic empowerment of women across The Fair & Lovely (FAL) Foundation aims at
stories of women achievers who have overcome all obstacles with their strong will and positive attitude
and “changed their destinies”. Fair & Lovely Shikhar is a unique concept based on a real life scenario of
women from various walks of life.

 SANJIVANI- Free Mobile Medical Facility :

A free mobile medical service camp in the year 2003 near its Doom Dooma factory in Assam. The aim
was to provide free mobile medical facility to the interior villagers in Assam. This was done keeping in
mind the lack of quality medical facilities available in the villages in and around Doom Dooma.

There are two mobile vans dedicated to the project, each vehicle has one male and one female doctor,
two nurses, a medical attendant (Helper) and a driver. The vans are equipped with basic kits such as
diagnostic kit, blood pressure measuring unit, medicines and a mobile stretcher.

The mobile medical vans camp for six hours in a village everyday and treat nearly 100 patients. The
factory has tied up with the village headman to set up the camp in the village in a central area. And the
camp items are left back in the village at the end of the day. These camps are well equipped with
medical equipment and medicines for small diseases, however, for critical diseases only consultation is
provided.
In a year, approximately 400 medical camps are conducted under the Sanjivani project. Along with the
regular consultancy and treatment given at the medical camps, Sanjivani also undertakes activities like
awareness campaigns on hygiene, child immunization camps, iron supplement therapy, free eye check
ups, family planning awareness camps, anti-tobacco education and anti-alcoholism camps, based on the
requirement of the villagers. Moreover, Sanjivani team has also helped in supporting Government
agencies and held camps in collaboration with Indian Medical Association also, in Tinsukia district.

Villages falling within the radius of 40 kms have been identified for the project and they are centrally
located with many bordering villages. Although government primary health centers are available in and
around the areas identified but the necessary medical facilities are not available. Sanjivani is a big relief
to villagers in this region. The Sanjivani project has provided medical assistance to about to two lakh
patients since its inception.

True to its meaning “Sanjivani” (a Hindi word meaning rejuvenation in English) has brought back a
smile on the faces of thousands of villagers who were deprived of basis health facilities in remote areas
of Assam in India.

HUL has also contributed in times of natural havoc and supported the lives of many people…

Disaster relief and rehabilitation

HUL had provide relief and rescue operation to various places that were affected by natural calamities in
India in past few years in the times of-

Earthquake disaster

Yashodadham.

After the devastating earthquake in Gujarat in 2001, HUL reconstructed a village in the Bhachau Taluka
of Gujarat's Kutch district in December 2002. Named as Yashodadham, this village was dedicated to
1,100 residents of Nani Chirai village, which was completely wrecked by the earthquake. Yashodadham
was constructed with the active involvement of villagers and is spread over 25 acres, comprising 289
homes.

HUL has also supported the construction of a school building, playground, multi-purpose community
centre, crèche, health centre, underground reservoir, overhead tank, community room and a village
administration office. All the structures are earthquake and cyclone resistant.

Tsunami, South India

Tondiarpet

HUL contributed over Rs. 100 million towards relief and rehabilitation of tsunami affected families by
the way of providing relief material, land and construction of facilities. The Company distributed
Nutritional and personal hygiene products worth Rs. 50 million for immediate relief to the needy at the
time that tsunami had hit the region. Later, pursuant to a request from the Government of Tamil Nadu on
a more pressing need to provide housing to the affected families, HUL donated

5.27 acres of land (market value on a conservative basis is Rs. 45 million) at Tondiarpet, Chennai, to the
Government of Tamil Nadu for rehabilitation.

The complex has 960 permanent houses. Employees of HUL made a contribution of Rs. 5 million
towards the construction of the facilities in the complex.

On the day of the disaster, employees from our factories and offices in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and
Kerala had provided necessary relief to the Tsunami-hit people. The relief operations included
distribution of bread and biscuits to over 500 families in Pondicherry, 12,000 cooked meals for families
in Chennai, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Andamans. Over 12,000 dry relief packs, comprising of
Company's dry rations and personal hygiene products were distributed.

Floods, Bihar, 2008

HUL contributed 10,000 kits worth Rs.60 lakhs as the first installment of material for immediate relief
of the flood affected families of Araria District in Bihar. The kit contained essential items such as
utensils, clothes, blankets and other useful material. In all, 12 truckloads of material were distributed to
the affected families under the guidance of the Araria District Magistrate. A sum of 84 lakhs was
contributed by HUL employees and the company to rehabilitate the underprivileged amongst the flood-
affected families in the village of Jorgama, Madhepura District, Bihar. The Project aims at providing,
through a strategic alliance between HUL, ACC & Habitat International, the following facilities to the
People in a phased manner:

 Construction of 100 disaster proof houses for the purpose of rehabilitation;

 Construction and development of a Community Resource Centre for people
 Design, development and implementation of livelihood programmes aiming at sustained
and increased income for 300 families
 Capacity and capability building of villagers for village development
 Promoting the concept of Self-Help Groups to develop economically, ecologically and
viable plans and to mobilize finances for farming and non-farming activities
 Creating alternate livelihood opportunities in the areas of manufacturing of concrete
products, sale of hollow brick blocks, fly ash bricks, pavement blocks etc.
 Ensuring the involvement of people in non-farming activities and help create a feasible
rapport with fair, remunerative and competitive markets.
 Assist in improving the living condition for at least 300 families
 Development of a model village with provisions for safe drinking water & put in place a
mechanism for water resource management, provisions of electricity supply, clinical &
sanitation facilities, etc.