What Does Unilever's Latest Move Mean for Sustainability?

The role of sustainability leaders and their teams are ever-developing.
Some companies have a Chief Sustainability Officer who sits on the board, some have a Head of Sustainability who runs a small team, some have sustainability leads embedded into each department — and many more.
“In many organisations, the Chief Sustainability Officer role is held by someone very talented but actually quite junior, yet they feel like they're having to think further ahead than the CEO,” says Simon Weaver, Global Head of ESG and Sustainability Advisory at KPMG.
Seniority of sustainability leaders varies, as do their managers.
In many companies, the CSO reports directly to the CEO, while some go to the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer or Chief Marketing Officer.
As Unilever combines corporate affairs, external communications and sustainability into CSO Rebecca Marmot’s role — where previously she just managed sustainability — the question arises, is it important?
Sustainability at Unilever
Consumer goods company Unilever is behind some of the world’s favourite brands — think Dove, Axe, Ben & Jerry's and around 400 more in 190 countries.
Unilever products are used by more than 3.4 billion people every day, but this has led to a pretty considerable global footprint.
Despite being the world’s third largest plastic polluter, the company has been very publicly in support of the introduction of the Global Plastics Treaty — Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher even represented the Business Coalition at INC-4, the negotiations in Ottawa, Canada.
The company hit the headlines in April 2024 when the company announced a scale-back of its environmental and social aims, watering down targets in areas including plastic usage and pay.
Under the provocative headline Defining a new era for sustainability leadership, Hein says: “The reality is that Unilever’s sustainability agenda covers a wide range of issues.
“But we have learned from experience that we need to be more focused in our allocation of resources to make tangible progress on the big, complex challenges we face.”
After some considerable backlash, the company released an updated Climate Transition Action Plan.
Rebecca Marmot, Unilever’s then-Chief Sustainability Officer, says: “CTAP is really important because it enables us to understand where our emissions sit across our business and our value chain.
“We’ve now got time-bound costed roadmaps that enable us to take action in each of the business groups.
“That means less exposure to volatility in the energy markets and more security of supply in key crops and commodities.”
What is the Unilever CSO’s new role?
The most recent controversy in Unilever’s sustainability lies in a re-organisation of the sustainability team.
Rebecca Marmot was the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer from May 2019 to January 2025, when her role evolved to Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer which she describes as ‘Global Head of Sustainability, Corporate Affairs and External Communications’.
In her new role, Rebecca leads on corporate affairs, external communications and sustainability for the global company and its many brands.
The questions this leaves us with are:
- Is this a move we can expect to see in other major companies over the next few years?
- Does this indicate that Unilever is scaling back its sustainability priorities?
- Is it better to have sustainability as a separate role and department, or does it pay to embed it into other areas?
Unilever is certainly not alone in this approach, with the Chief Sustainability Role often reporting into the Chief Marketing Officer or being part of the communications team.
“In my experience, where a sustainability team sits is important,” shares Lindsay Dahl, Chief Impact Officer at Ritual.
“But what matters more is how much sustainability is embedded in the annual strategy, planning and governance process.
“And how much the CEO is willing to make hard decisions, when faced with financial tradeoffs.”
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