Unilever updates Scope 3 targets in new climate plan
Company also publishes review of how its trade bodies align with its climate objectives
Unilever has published its latest climate transition plan today, including its first absolute targets for Scope 3 emissions.
The plan outlines the consumer goods giant’s goals, following a review of its sustainability priorities last year. Under a more streamlined approach, climate change was identified as one of four focus areas, along with nature, plastics and livelihoods.
Unilever reiterated its intention to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 70% by 2025, from a 2015 baseline. By 2030, it plans to have no Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and will not use carbon offsets to achieve the goal.
These objectives have been in place since the company issued its 2021 transition plan, and Unilever said it had already managed to reduce its operational emissions by 74%.
But, it continued, “achieving significant absolute reductions in our Scope 3 emissions has proven more challenging”.
“This has prompted us to look again at where and how we believe we can seek absolute emissions reductions in our value chain,” it explained.
Until now, Unilever had pledged to halve the emissions impact of its products "per consumer use" by 2030, compared with 2010.
But it has now announced an absolute Scope 3 target, including a 42% cut in emissions from key parts of Unilever’s value chain – such as ingredients, packaging, transport and distribution, use of its aerosols, disposal of its products and the lease of ice cream cabinets – between 2021 and 2030.
Over the same period, it is targeting a 30.3% reduction in emissions generated from forests, land and agriculture associated with the ingredients its buys.
The climate plan will be put to vote for the second time at Unilever’s annual meeting in May. Its 2021 plan got the backing of more than 99% of participating shareholders, and the firm said its biggest investors were supportive of the key objectives in the latest version.
Trade associations
Earlier this week, Unilever also published a report looking into how well it was represented by its trade associations when it came to climate change.
It assessed 27 of its industry bodies, and concluded that 18 were aligned with its in-house positions on climate, but eight of those had “no public record of carrying out meaningful engagement on climate policy” and a further four “were found to have low engagement”.
Eight of the 27 were misaligned on at least one of Unilever’s priority topics.
The firm said it would share the findings with all the bodies assessed, and planned “to work with industry associations on practical and realistic actions to ensure they improve their policy positions and practices”.
Last month, PlanetTracker warned that companies who supported trade bodies that were lobbying against progressive climate policies could find themselves accused of greenwashing.
Note: This article was updated after publication to provide more detail about Unilever's Scope 3 target.
