Unilever has said that it will not go as far with its environmental promises. A lot of people have said that the company should “hold their head in shame” since the news.
In an interview, Unilever’s CEO Hein Schumacher revealed that the company would be breaking some of its environmental and social promises. These included promises to reduce plastic use and pay gaps. People who own shares in the company wanted it to focus on the stock market and not on green projects, and they also wanted it to cut costs wherever it could.
Unilever used to say that they would use half as much new plastic by 2025, but now they say that they will cut their plastic use by 2026. The company said that by the end of the decade, they would pay their main suppliers enough to live on. That promise will not be kept. Another thing they said was that they would hire people with disabilities and spend billions of dollars every year on businesses that are diverse.
Although some said they were wrong to back down, others said the company could still make a difference even if it had to break all of these promises. Not everyone was nice. Some thought the company was going back on its word and not caring about how its actions affect the plastic garbage they cause.
Things have gotten worse since Schumacher took over in July of last year. Shares of Unilever have dropped by at least 8% since she took over, which shows that people are becoming more worried about the company. Because of the former executive, they were very concerned about how their actions affected the environment and made promises and plans for ten years, which are now being broken.
