Responsible and Ethical Business Practice of Unilever

Responsible Ethical Business practice
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April 9, 2023
Understanding how to balance profit and sustainable operations is essential for any large organization. Although profit is typically the primary objective of a business to remain in operation, implementing sustainable practices is also essential to prevent any legal and regulatory risks which could cause losses. However, if a company's primary objective is to profit, expanding as much as it would like will take much work. Both their customers and their employees must be taken care of. They must take responsibility for the misdeeds or problems that their business has engaged in. To ensure that the consumer or the client is satisfied with their service or work, they must aid with issues relating to their product and services. A business committed to its mission must follow ethical business practices, which entail treating all parties fairly, justly, and responsibly, including customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and the community (Global, 2017).
Context and Scenario
In response to growing worries about how corporate operations are affecting society and the environment, the idea of responsible business has evolved. This includes promoting sustainable and moral business practices that benefit all parties involved, including clients, staff, shareholders, and the communities where enterprises operate. Because it is the only way people can continue to live on our planet in the years to come, sustainability is a significant concern for the world's future. When making their products, large corporations like Unilever emit a significant amount of greenhouse gasses. They are working to increase their sustainability as a result in order to keep it. In this paper, the author will use the brand of Unilever, a British-based company, to describe a company that has responsible and ethical business practices (Plc, 2023). Some businesses, like Microsoft, specializing in creating digital products, utilize significantly fewer greenhouse gasses to produce their services. However, in creating their digital products and services, companies must consume energy to run their offices and data centers, producing greenhouse gases. Companies do this by employing electrical equipment and electricity. Even though Microsoft has switched to using renewable energy, there are still occasions when it is unavailable. This is why every company should do its part in promoting sustainability even if they are producing fewer greenhouse gasses.
It must be noted that these organizations are some of the largest organizations that span various parts of the globe. Global consumer goods giant Unilever has operations in more than 190 nations. The company sells various goods, including food, drinks, personal care, and home care items. Their goods are widely used throughout the home and are relatively common. Unilever is dedicated to employing ethical business practices and has established challenging goals to lessen its negative environmental effect and enhance social circumstances throughout its supply chain. Because there is so much at stake, a firm with a wide range of products should put much effort into becoming an ethically aligned organization (Plc, 2023b). The names of the two enterprises, Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie, inspired Unilever. As a result, it needs a single founder. However, Jurgens and Van den Bergh co-founded Margarine Unie, while William Hesketh Lever and James Darcy Lever co-founded Lever Brothers.
There are three core pillars that they followed in order to do a business that is ethical and responsible. Notably, this includes sustainable living, responsible sourcing, and community engagement. Under sustainable living, Unilever is dedicated to making its operations and products more sustainable. By 2030, the corporation wants to cut its products' environmental impact in half. Given that the raw materials they use have a large carbon footprint when processed, they need to balance being sustainable and also being able to create their product with the same or higher quality than before; this kind of aim is astounding. This entails reducing waste, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions throughout the product life cycle. By 2023, Unilever wants to sustainably obtain all of its agricultural raw materials. Under its Sustainable Living capacity, Unilever is dedicated to responsibly and sustainably procuring its raw resources. Choosing and analyzing where their raw materials are coming from can be a fantastic strategy to achieve their goals since some raw material suppliers utilize illegal methods to obtain them. This might have an impact on their goal of sustainability. This includes collaborating with suppliers to enhance the social and environmental circumstances inside their supply chains and business operations. By 2025, Unilever wants to have helped 5 million people in its supply chain enhance their quality of life.
Under its pillar of Community Engagement, Unilever is dedicated to cooperating with the communities in which it operates to generate value for everyone. In order to preserve a healthy seller-to-buyer relationship, online support for customers who have questions about their products is also offered. With these, they can obtain more integrity. This includes promoting health and cleanliness, aiding local economic development, and assisting with education and skill development. Through its Unilever Foundation, Unilever also aids in relief efforts for natural disasters. By making these gifts and supporting the causes they believe in, they are assisting a particular community of their choice. This may be seen as paying it forward to the community that once supported them by purchasing their goods. Overall, Unilever's strategy for doing responsible business demonstrates a dedication to generating long-term value for all parties involved, including clients, staff members, shareholders, and the communities in which it operates. Unilever aims to create a more sustainable and socially responsible company that benefits all parties by strongly emphasizing sustainability, responsible sourcing, and community participation.
The philosophical system known as Kantian thought emphasizes the pursuit of universal moral principles and the importance of obligation. Kantian ethics emphasizes the significance of universal moral principles and the intrinsic value of every human person. As such, it offers a good lens for critically reflecting on responsible and ethical business tactics. Due to their aspirations to improve the world and their awareness of their surrounding environment, and the people engaged in every action they engage in, Unilever's goals and aspirations significantly support this idea. The idea that moral concepts should be universalizable or applicable to everyone in all situations is one of the central ideas of Kantian ethics. This suggests that companies have a moral obligation to act in a way that respects the autonomy and dignity of all parties involved, including staff members, clients, and the general public.
Organization Overview
After all of the aforementioned, Unilever is a worldwide consumer products corporation that has received praise for its initiatives to advance social responsibility and sustainability. Unilever has, however, been under fire for its effects on the environment and society, much like any other huge multinational organization. This is expected given their influence among the people they serve and the likelihood that the media and other businesses will seize the opportunity to damage their reputation. The author will assess Unilever's ethical, social, and environmental effects critically, speculate on how it may improve its moral character and environmental sustainability, and investigate how it might determine what sort of environmental impact it should have.
First and foremost, it is crucial to recognize Unilever for the excellent work it has done to advance sustainability and social responsibility. In order to lessen its adverse effects on the environment, Unilever has set ambitious goals, such as achieving carbon neutrality and having zero trash landfilled by 2039. Additionally, Unilever has pledged to sustainably source all of its agricultural raw materials and make all it is plastic packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. Regarding social responsibility, Unilever has prioritized diversity and inclusion in the workplace and has started various programs to support social and economic growth in the areas where it works....