Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) The societal responsibility of companies

The voluntary compliance of social and ecological responsibility of companies is called Corporate Social Responsibility. It is represented by the contributions undertaken by companies to society through its business activities and its social investment.

HISTORY
The term CSR became only popular in the 1990s, when the German Betapharm, a generic pharmaceutical company decided to implement CSR. In 1997 a halt in sales growth led the company to the realization that in the generic drugs market, companies could not differentiate on price or quality.

 This was the prelude for the company to adopt CSR By using strategic and social commitment for families with chronically ill children, Betapharm took a strategic advantage.

Hindustan Unilever Limited

Small Actions, Big Difference

HUL's heritage dates back to 1888, when the first Lever product, Sunlight bar, touched Indian shores. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods company. Two out of three Indians use Hindustan Unilever products.

It has a strong portfolio of Food, Personal Care and Home Care products which covers over 1 million retail outlets across India directly and its products are available in nearly 80% of all retail outlets in India.

Vision:
To create a better future everyday. Develop new ways of doing business with the aim of doubling the size of our company while reducing our environmental impact.

HUL and Star Bazaar launch Indias Favourites consumer campaign

 30-08-2011 : Mumbai: Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Indias Largest FMCG company, and Star Bazaar, of Trent Hypermarket Limited, the retail arm of Tata Group announced a unique consumer initiative titled Indias Favourites to promote the cause of education of underprivileged children.

 Indias Favourites is a three-week consumer initiative which began on August 29th till September 21st in all 13 Star Bazaar stores across seven cities in India.
The consumer initiative will offer consumers attractive discounts on specific units of leading brands of HUL namely, Brooke Bond Red Label, Kissan, Knorr, Kwality Walls, Clear, Dove, Vaseline, Axe, Surf & Vim. Five percent of the sales proceeds of this consumer initiative will be donated to Smile Foundation, Parikrama and Thozhamai, which work in the area of education for underprivileged children.

SAMRUDDHI
HUL is committed to enhance livelihoods in Dadra & Nagar Haveli under Project Samruddhi. Samruddhi deals with creating sustainable villages in D& NH. HUL has partnership with leading NGOs Aide et Action and Vanarai.

HUL in partnership with Aide et Action has set up iLEAD centers for youth in Silvassa offering vocational courses like tailoring, basic computers, electrical wiring etc.

 Apart from capability building, HUL in association with an NGO, Vanarai, has embarked on a long-term project of water harvesting. It is aimed at increasing water availability in the area. The community has so far built about 157 Vanarai bunds since 2003. Apart from this, medical / health camps and pulse polio immunisation programme are also conducted in the village. With the objective of improving animal health, animal husbandry and to educate farmers on advance agricultural practices 'krishi melas' are organized.

PROJECT SHAKTI SHAKTI - Changing Lives in Rural India

 Shakti is HUL's rural initiative, which targets small villages with population of less than 2000 people or less. Started in 2001, Shakti has been extended to about 80,000 villages in 15 states It seeks to empower underprivileged rural women by providing income-generating opportunities, health and hygiene education through the Shakti Vani programme and creating access to relevant information through the iShakti community portal.

 Shakti is a pioneering effort in creating livelihoods for rural women, organised in Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and improving living standards in rural India.
Shakti already has about 25,000 women entrepreneurs in its fold. Shakti Vani is a social communication programme. Women, trained in health and hygiene issues, address village communities through meetings at schools, village baithaks, SHG meetings and other social fora. iShakti, the Internet-based rural information service, has been launched in Andhra Pradesh, in association with the Andhra Pradesh Government's Rajiv Internet Village Programme. It has now extended to several other states as well

Water Conservation and Harvesting

(linked to product Pureit) HUL'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 , Recycle, Recover and Renew; b. help adjacent villages to implement appropriate models of watershed development.

Economic Empowerment of Women

The Fair & Lovely Foundation is HUL's initiative which aims at economic empowerment of women across India.

It specifically targets women from low-income groups in rural as well as urban India.
Fair & Lovely, as a brand, stands on the economic empowerment platform and the Foundation is an extension of this promise.

The Foundation has renowned Indian women, from various walks of life, as its advisors. Among them are educationists, NGO activists, physicians.

The Foundation is implementing its activities in association with state governments.

Health & Hygiene Education

Lifebuoy Swastya Chetna (LBSC) is a rural health and hygiene initiative which was started in 2002.
LBSC was initiated in media dark villages (in UP, MP, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Orissa) with the objective ofspreading awareness about the importance of washing hands with soap. The need for a program of this nature arose from the fact that diarrhoeal diseases are a major cause of death in the world today. It is estimated that diarrhoea claims the life of a child every 10 seconds and one third of these deaths are in India.

According to a study done by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the simple practice of washing hands with soap and water can reduce diarrhoea by as much as 47%. However, ignorance of such basic hygiene practices leads to high mortality rates in rural India.

Special Education & Rehabilitation

Under the Happy Homes initiative, HUL supports special education and rehabilitation of children with challenges.

Asha Daan:
The initiative began in 1976, when HUL supported Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity to set up Asha Daan, a home in Mumbai for abandoned, challenged children, and the destitute.

Ankur:
In 1993, HUL's Doom Dooma Plantation Division set up Ankur, a centre for special education of challenged children. The centre takes care of children with challenges, aged between 5 and 15 years. Ankur provides educational, vocational and recreational activities to over 35 children with a range of challenges, including sight or hearing impairment, polio related disabilities, cerebral palsy and severe learning difficulties.

Kappagam:
Encouraged by Ankur's success, Kappagam ("shelter"), the second centre for special education of challenged children, was set up in 1998 on HUL Plantations in South India. It has 17 children. The focus of Kappagam is the same as that of Ankur.

Anbagam:
Yet another day care center, Anbagam ("shelter of love"), has been started in 2003 also in the South India Plantations. It takes care of 11 children. Besides medical care and meals, they too are being taught skills such that they can become self-reliantand elementary studies.

The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan has set three big goals for Unilever to achieve by 2020:
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 sustainably

One of the key endeavors as part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan is to motivate consumers to take the small achievable actions that add up to a big difference. The Indias Favourites campaign helps us to further this cause of increasing awareness among consumers and helping them to contributing to an important social cause