Owned by

Unilever

  • Ben & Jerry's
  • Knorr
  • Lipton
  • Slim-Fast
Score
74%
Fair

Unilever retains the top spot and has improved on women.The owner of Ben & Jerry’s and Lipton leads the pack on climate change, supporting small-scale farmers, transparency and workers rights. However, they could still tell us more about the social impacts of supply chain activities, particularly in relation to land and gender.

How are the scores formed?

We assessed publicly available information on the policies and commitments of the 'Big 10' food companies towards the sourcing of agricultural commodities from developing countries. The Scorecard looks at seven themes, weighing each theme equally. The index tackles some cutting edge issues that will require rigorous debate and dialogue between companies, civil society and industry experts. Find out more...

What do the scores mean?

  1. 8 - 10Good
  2. 6 - 7Fair
  3. 4 - 5Some progress
  4. 2 - 3Poor
  5. 0 - 1Very poor

Land

Score 7

Unilever’s Responsible Sourcing Policy includes a commitment to ‘Free, Prior, and Informed Consent’ for all communities and makes explicit its ‘zero tolerance’ for land grabs.

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Thank you for using your voice on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter to nudge your favorite brands. As companies commit to improve their policies, we’ll update the scorecard so you can see how your actions are helping to push the ten biggest food and beverage companies to do better.

Women

Score 6

Unilever is doing a decent job when it comes to gender but it needs to better understand where women are most vulnerable in its supply chain and move its suppliers to make concrete changes. They recently conducted an impact assessment in Vietnam addressing women’s labor rights, which is good step forward.

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Thank you for using your voice on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter to nudge your favorite brands. As companies commit to improve their policies, we’ll update the scorecard so you can see how your actions are helping to push the ten biggest food and beverage companies to do better.

Farmers

Score 8

Unilever remains the only company to get a “good” score for farmers. Farmers are likely to get a better deal with Unilever than with many other companies. The company seems to understand farmers’ issues and it publishes its efforts in addressing these. However, the company could do more to ensure farmers earn a living income and to demonstrate that its suppliers are treating farmers fairly.

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Workers

Score 8

Unilever is a leader when it comes to workers. Unilever’s Responsible Sourcing Policy sets out new requirements for its suppliers in relation to workers’ rights. It could still improve on ensuring its suppliers implement key labour rights, and like the others, it needs to do much more to ensure workers are paid a living wage.

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Climate

Score 9

Unilever leads the scorecard on climate with the highest score (9/10) in the overall scorecard. The company has strong policies on deforestation and palm oil, guidelines for its suppliers, and is engaging governments to take action. We hope they will continue to show leadership and go even further.

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Make a change

Thank you for using your voice on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter to nudge your favorite brands. As companies commit to improve their policies, we’ll update the scorecard so you can see how your actions are helping to push the ten biggest food and beverage companies to do better.

Transparency

Score 7

Unilever is the company most transparent about its suppliers and taxation. It is the only company that discloses its policy on taxation. It continued to make improvements in disclosing sources of origin and the compliance of suppliers with its code.

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Make a change

Thank you for using your voice on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter to nudge your favorite brands. As companies commit to improve their policies, we’ll update the scorecard so you can see how your actions are helping to push the ten biggest food and beverage companies to do better.

Water

Score 7

Unilever understands the value of water and the importance of its suppliers reporting on water management. But plenty still to do – a good next step would be setting a target for reduction of water use right through its value chain.

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See how the world's ten largest food companies compare on the Behind the Brands Food companies Scorecard See the Scorecard