One of the world’s largest multinationals, Unilever, has entered the social reporting arena by publishing its first international Social Review.
The 20-page document, posted on the Dutch company’s web site, is based on two years of data collection and assessments carried out within the group.
During 1999 and 2000, nine Unilever companies in Canada, the Netherlands, UK, Brazil, Turkey, Ghana, India, Poland and Vietnam completed a self-assessment manual, drawn up with help from The Corporate Citizenship Company consultancy. This manual provided some of the information and case studies used in the Social Review.
Unilever claimed the review would provide it with ‘a baseline from which to set milestones for future activities.’ It added: ‘We will continue to experiment with how and what we measure, what is usefully monitored and reported at an international level, and what is best kept local’.
Some regionalized corporate social responsibility reports will appear later this year.
The Social Review has been produced separately to Unilever’s Environmental Performance 2000 report, although it also summarises some of the company’s green initiatives.
It commits the company to addressing the concerns of seven stakeholder groups: shareholders, employees, consumers, business partners, government, local communities where it does business, and academics and ‘others with whom we conduct research’.
It also promises that by the end of this year Unilever will complete a revision of its existing Code of Business Principles, which sets out standards on issues such as health and safety, product quality, relations with governments, ethical behaviour and environmental impact.
Unilever said the revised code, along with its Social Review, ‘can start to give definition to our corporate social responsibility’.
Other commitments in the review include a pledge ‘to deliver on the distinctive social mission’ of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company, which it bought in 2000, and a promise to increase the proportion of women in senior positions in the company.
Around 21 per cent of senior managers are women – up almost 100 per cent since 1992 – but Unilever says progress ‘is not yet fast enough nor comprehensive enough.’ It will also seek a greater spread of nationalities among its senior management group.
Unilever is one of the largest consumer goods businesses in the world, employing 255,000 people and selling products such as Lipton tea and Dove soap in more than 150 countries.