Change Management Assignment Sample

“Unilever’s transitional action plan to reach the zero- emission target”

Introduction

Unilever is a multinational retail company and is known to have produce many well known brands. However, despite the varied laurels and fame, that the company has managed to garner till date, the company is very much contributing in the ongoing environmental crisis that the world is facing. The world is in a dire state as of now because of the crisis brought in by the disbalance in the environmental cycle brought upon by the never- ending greed of humans. Humans have for far too long chose to remain complacent about the ongoing environmental related crisis because of that, the socio- economic lives of millions of people from all over the world are being negatively impacted today. Not only is the change in the climate impacting the harvests but it is also threatening the availability of clean drinkable water and is also generating extreme weather because of the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate (Lohwanitchai,2021). And therefore, in order to put an end to such catastrophic practice, many of the companies (both big and small companies) all over the world are taking initiative and are being influenced by the desire of initiating a target of zero- emission so as to minimize the occurrence of further damage done to the already damaged environment. Hence, Unilever company is also one such company that has been influenced by the present ongoing trends of target brought in by the external force i.e., target for zero- emission. The Unilever company is very well aware that the change in the climate will end up directly or indirectly having some form of impact on the lives of the company’s stakeholders. Therefore, the Unilever company has taken up its very own plan for action so as to fight the occurrence of climate change and help in the restoring of the nature/ environment former glory( Zhang,2021).

In December of the year 2020, the Unilever company announced its plan to make a transition with an action plan to target for a net- zero emission so as to stop the crisis relating to the climate. The action plan postulated by the Unilever company discuss about the steps that the company will proceed with in order to minimize the emission of carbon or any harmful gases or chemicals to zero within the company’s operation by the year 2030 and to record an emission of net- zero throughout the company’s value chain by the year 2039. The Unilever company is planning to drive the initiation of the action plan at the earliest in order to drive the minimization of the emission aggressively so that the company will be able gain competitive edge for its business as opposed to its contemporary competitors (Wolff-Bye,2021). With the initiation of the action plan, the Unilever company is planning to potentially strengthen the company’s performance with regard to the climate for the company’s owned brand. The Unilever company is harboring a lot of expectations from this action plan because this initiation can help the company to further expand and elevate the company’s brand value as a “responsible and cautious brand” among its existing market which will further put the company far ahead of its contemporary competitors. And therefore, in order to in- depthly and clearly understand how or in what manner, did the occurrence of such external force lead trend all around the world (i.e., the target for zero- emission) brought upon the world due to the crisis pertaining to climate ended up influencing the giant multinational company as such as the Unilever company, we will be discussing on a lot of different topics, so as to get a clearer grasp on the situation at hand. Some of the topics that we will be discussing about in this report writing are as follows- the identification of the rationale or reason behind the Unilever company’s decision to come up with the action plan in order to target the zero- emission, the objectives behind the initiated action plan, the planning activities, the implementations strategies and lastly, we will be discussing about some recommendations for best practice which the Unilever company can incorporate in its action plan.

Identification of the rationale:

The world is currently facing a lot of threats and challenges because of the crisis pertaining to the climate change. The crisis pertaining to the change in the climate is a crisis which not only negatively impacts the environment but it also ends up negatively impacting the lives of the millions of people living all across the globe. Unilever company is also one such company that has been influenced by the present ongoing trends of target brought in by the external force i.e., target for zero- emission. The Unilever company is very well aware that the change in the climate will end up directly or indirectly having some form of impact on the lives of the company’s stakeholders (Acampora,2021).

The Unilever taking note of the cruciality of the situation put forward due to the ongoing environmental crisis, decided to join the current ongoing trend of working on targets so as to achieve net zero- emission. Thus, in the month of December of the year 2020, the Unilever’s company board ended up announcing its decisions to move forth with the company’s action plan for climate transition before all of the shareholders of the company by seeking for a vote of the advisory with non- binding factors with regard to the ambitious minimization of the emission centric target i.e., the net zero emission from the company’s practiced operations by the year 2039 and form the net zero across the company’s overall value chain by the year 2039. There are many rationales behind why, the Unilever company decided to move forth with the initiation of the action plan concerning the target for zero- net emission. The four main rationales behind the Unilever’s transitional action plan are as follows-

• The Unilever company is very well aware that the occurrence of such change in the climate caused due to the crisis pertaining to the environment, will not only impact on the environment as a whole, but such crisis resulting in the change of the climate could in turn have negative impact on the company’s overall business and also could potentially have a negative impact on the company’s consumers and the company’s employees as well. The company’s successful operation of the company is very much dependent on the company’s stakeholders and the company’s employees. Therefore, taking heed of such importance and significance by its stakeholders and its employees, the company decided to take an action before, the negative impact of such crisis, drown and tarnish the company’s overall standing and business within the market (Tanneberger,2021).
• Another rationale or reason behind why the Unilever company decided to move forward with the action plan by seeking for a vote that is non- binding from the advisory with regard to the action plan, the target of which is to minimize the emission by targeting net- zero emission is because, the company is also very much aware that by taking such an action plan with regard to the change in the climate, the brand of the company will be looked at or referred to as a “responsible brand” which will further help the company to earn many competitive advantage over its contemporary competitors existing within the market. The Unilever company is planning to drive the initiation of the action plan at the earliest in order to drive the minimization of the emission aggressively so that the company will be able gain competitive edge and advantage for its business as opposed to its contemporary competitors.
• The third rationale behind the Unilever company’s motives of initiating the transitional action plan with regard to the change in the climate is because with the initiation of the action plan, the Unilever company is planning to potentially strengthen the company’s performance with regard to the climate for the company’s owned brand by integrating innovations so as to minimize the negative impact on the environment through company’s operations (which mostly results in the emission of many harmful chemicals) and at the same time also improve the overall health of the environment and the planet as a whole via the company’s fund with regard to climate and nature.
• Also, the fourth rationale is that, the Unilever company through its action plan is expecting to encourage or influence other organisations to follow in its foot steps of shifting to net- zero emission. The reason for as such is because the company is very well aware that in order to encourage wide economic centric shift with regard to net- zero emission target will indeed require an in- depth level of engagement between the varied organisations and their varied investors which could be quite hard to achieve just through exchange of dialogue. And therefore, through its transitional initiation, the company is expecting to elevate the transparency and the accountability level of the companies all across the globe.

Objectives:

The objective that the Unilever company is planning to garner through its transitional action plan with regard to the change in the climate by targeting net- zero emission are as follows-

• The first objective that the Unilever company is planning to garner is the short- term target for minimization of emission. With this short- term target, the company is planning to minimize the emissions of chemicals through company’s run operations by about 70 % by the year 2030 against the baselines set in the year 2015.
• The second objective is a medium- term target for minimization of emission via, which the Unilever company is planning to minimize the emissions of chemicals through company’s run operations by about 100 % by the year 2030 against the baselines set by the company in the year 2015.
• The third objective is a long- term target for acquiring value chain through net- zero emission. Through, this target, the Unilever company wants to achieve net- zero emission and acquire value chain by the year 2039.
• The fourth objective is a medium- term acquiring of value chain by targeting minimization of emission via which the company is planning to reduce the full emission value chain by halve with regard to the company’s products in the basis of per consumer utilise basis by the year 2030 against the baseline created in the year 2010.

Planning activities:

With the world embarking towards a target of acquiring net- zero emission so as to meet the goal stated in the Paris Agreement, the Unilever company didn’t want to be left behind on such grand target and therefore, it came forth with its transitional action plan with regard to climate change. For the Unilever company such a target meant making sure that the emission produced by the company with regard to the company’s product and business ends up being minimized towards a target of zero- emission. The Unilever company via its activities with regard to the action plan, it wants to balance the emission by removing carbon via sequestration of the carbon, so as to achieve its net- zero target. Therefore, in order to move forth with such action plan, the company has come forth with activities via which the goal/ objective and the pertaining path to reach the goal are identified and so, the planning activities are as follows-

• Eradicate the operational centric scope 1 and 2 oriented emissions from the company’s factories, working space and labs.
• Redesigning of the company’s brand by lowering the products with more carbon emission by utilising packaging and products with formulas that are more compacted. The company by adopting and practicing choices that are sustainable centric wants to make it easier for the consumers to trust the genuineness of the company’s effort to be a channel of change.
• The Unilever company is also planning to minimize the emissions of carbon from the overall company’s owned products life- cycle (starting from the raw materials in the upstream, to the distribution in the downstream and the utilisation and disposal of the products).
• The company is also planning to advocate towards embracing a change that is more sustainable centric.

Implementation strategies:

In order to deliver the initiated goal, the Unilever company’s with regard to the transition climate change action plan is currently focused on four main areas and they are- company’s operation, company’s product and brand, company’s value chain and lastly, the influence on the society. The implementation strategies mostly focus on two different strategy and they are as follows-

• First will be fighting the crisis related to climate change so as to achieve the target of zero carbon emission from the company’s operating and have halve of the footprint with regard to GHG of the company’s products by the year 2030. By doing so, the company is expecting to promote transparency about the footprint of the carbon( Yadav2021).
• The second strategy is to protect and then regenerate the nature. Through this strategy the company is planning to achieve varied target- achieving of supply chain practice that is free of deforestation by the year 2023, empower the farmers of new generation who are very much invested in protecting and also regenerating the environment of their farm, implementation of the programmes related to stewardship of water for the local centric communities in about 100 different locations by the year 2030 and vice versa (Xiao,2021).

Recommendation for the best practice:

Here, are some recommendations for the best practice of achieving zero target emission which the Unilever company can incorporate in its strategies and plans-

• Minimize the emission via achieving greater rate of efficiency with regard to energy by focusing on the utilisation of more renewable energy so as to produce clean energy and at the same time it will also help to avoid exhaustion of natural resources.
• The Unilever company can also invest in the eradication of the greenhouse related gases within the company’s value chain by utilising of methods like the capturing of the carbon and the utilisation so as to neutralize the emissions that are residuals.
• The Unilever company can also drive towards innovations via collaborations and also via integration and implementation of the latest technologies.
• Another practice that the Unilever company can incorporate in its action plan to achieve the net- zero emission is the removal of the carbon so as to reach its goal for net- zero emission by the year 2039. In order to remove the carbon, the Unilever company can practice varied techniques which utilised approaches that are land- based (such as burial of the carbon in the soil and vice versa) and also with approaches which are technological based.

Conclusion:

No matter, how much the efforts are made from the end of the companies (such as the Unilever company and vice versa), or governmental organisations from varied parts of the world, the ultimate deciding factor for the future of our beloved planet earth and also for our future, will be the manner in which humanity responds towards crisis related to environment (such as the climate change, ozone depletion and vice versa). However, looking into the leadership centric initiative which the Unilever is taking up with regard to making a change by adopting a target of zero- carbon emission will surely enable the company towards a more successful centric business. Such initiative, will enable the Unilever company to acquire a lot of competitive advantage by gaining the favor of the consumers and also will attract lots of talents within the company. Such investment made by the Unilever company can indeed be tagged as a wise and purpose- centric investment. Hopefully, learning from the action initiated by the Unilever company, the rest of the organisation or industries who are yet to target to make such change will be encouraged and likewise make purpose- centric initiatives which will not only benefit the company but will also be advantageous to the environment as well as the future of the human resource.

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