Critical Review of Unilever's Sustainability Reports

Five Capitals and Circular Economy Models

This Module examines the impact businesses have on social and ecological environments, and looks to support businesses in their transition to become a force for environmental good. Part of this means evaluating and assessing the starting conditions of a company, in order to identify what helps and what hinders their journey to reduce deleterious social-ecological impacts, and thereafter to identify opportunities to make meaningful changes to their developmental trajectory. This assignment evaluates the sustainability reports of Unilever, a large multinational corporation, using the corporation’s own documentation. A recent report is available at: https://www.unilever.com/Images/unilever-annual-report-and-accounts-2019_tcm244- 547893_en.pdf The summary report is here: https://www.unilever.com/Images/uslp- performance-summary-2019_tcm244-549815_en.pdf This assignment involves a critical review of this report according to the following criteria: 1) Many organisations employ the five capitals model and/or the circular economy model, whether they actually use these terms in their strategy or not. Following a careful reading of the Unilever report, explain how both of these concepts are articulated in the company’s corporate strategy, if they are. Please use specific illustrations. [550 words] To answer this, first summarise each of the two models, giving relevant examples to illustrate the model/ key concepts. Please use a table for this as this is excluded from the word count. Then, referring to Unilever’s report, identify how these concepts are discussed, giving page references to evidence your claims. 2) Unilever already makes a significant effort to align its work with the SDGs. Please identify at least two SDGs where you think Unilever still can make improvements. Clearly define the SDG concerned, identify how it is measured, discuss what Unilever are already doing in support of this goal (assuming they are), and then discuss what Unilever could do to further their ambition to meet this SDG. Please follow this structure in your response. Use the UN database for reference: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/database/ [950 words] To succeed in this assignment you are expected to demonstrate the skills of critical reading and critical thinking. Whether you agree or disagree with Unilever’s sustainability strategy is not the objective, but you are expected to give evidence in support of your opinion. This evidence must be grounded in academic journal papers (with correct citations). If you are quoting something from Unilever’s document, please give the page number. You are strongly encouraged to optimise your use of library resources for this paper. The expectation is for relevant journal articles to be cited in support of your answers. Please use https://proxy.library.dmu.ac.uk/login?url=https://citethemrightonline.com/Tutorial to correctly format references and in-text citations. You may use APA, Harvard or IEEE only. Deliverables to be submitted for assessment: Your assignment report should be no more than 1,500 words (+ 10%) in length, excluding references, appendices, and tables. Appendices should be no longer than 5 pages. Diagrams are to be used sparingly, and their sources referenced correctly. If you do use diagrams, these must be discussed in the body of the text. You should use a font of size no less than 10 points. How the work will be marked: Assessment will be based on the extent to which the learning outcomes have been met, and the extent to which the above instructions, notes and guidance are complied with (for example regarding word limit, style, structure and citation). The criteria below relate to the current pass mark of 50%. ?Explain the Five Capitals (with examples) and Circular Economy models (20 marks) ?Critical review of document using the two models (30 marks) ?Evidence-based recommendations for any improvements made (40 marks) ?Clarity of writing style, referencing and structure of report (10 marks) Students are encouraged to specify each of the five capitals, what these refer to, and to provide an example of each. Work that is deficient in most of the respects outlined above, does not follow the brief or which shows little evidence of critical analysis will be awarded an outright fail of 44% or less. A marginal fail of 45% to 49% may be awarded to work that demonstrates some understanding of the proble.