Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), has spent Rs. 126. 45 Cr crore as against its prescribed CSR expenditure of Rs 124.19 crore (2.4% of Average Net Profit of the Company for last 3 financial years of Rs. 6209.71 Crore) during FY 2018-19 towards various schemes of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development programmes as prescribed under Section 135 of the Act., its Annual Report for the Year 2018-19 revealed.
CSR and business activities are aligned towards contributing United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals through its initiatives.
According to the report, HUL believes in delivering long-term sustainable growth, while reducing its environmental footprint and increasing its positive social impact. Company has various flagship programmes including Water Conservation Project, Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat, Project Shakti, Handwashing Behaviour Change Programme, Plastic Waste Management, Project Prabhat, Domex Toilet Academy, Asha Daan, Sanjeevani and Supporting Healthcare, in which majority of CSR fund has been invested.
CSR Committee and Meetings
The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee of HUL comprises O. P. Bhatt – Independent – as the Chairman and Aditya Narayan, during the year 2018-19.
The role of CSR Committee includes formulating and recommending to the Board on CSR Policy and its affairs. To review the performance of CSR programmes, Committee met twice during the year.
Unilever Sustainable Living Plan
HUL has a vision is to accelerate growth in the business, while reducing environmental footprint and increasing positive social impact. This vision has been codified in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) launched in 2010, which designs blueprint for achieving sustainable growth.
By spurring innovation, strengthening the supply chain, lowering costs, reducing risks and building trust, sustainability is creating value for organization itself as well as the society.
“Company has made good progress on the three USLP big goals to be achieved globally: to help more than a billion people improve their health and well-being, to halve the environmental footprint of our products and to source 100% of our agricultural raw materials sustainably and enhance the livelihoods of people across our value chain.”, annual report said.
Fair & Lovely Foundation
During the year, the Company has spent an amount of Rs 3.94 Crore on Fair & Lovely Foundation and Rs 60 lakhs on Rin Career Ready Academy in accordance with the CSR Policy of the Company. However, these spends have not been considered for the purpose of computing prescribed CSR spend of two percent of the Average Net Profits.
Clinic Plus Scholarship
The scholarship is an opportunity for mothers to help their daughters of class 5th to 12th complete secondary education and fulfil their daughter’s dreams by supporting their education. In 2018, over 124 girls were awarded a scholarship of Rs 6,000 each.
