Warning – article contains mention of rape.
In what appears to be a clear breach of its ethical investment policy, Exeter University invests more than £800,000 in Unilever PLC, one of the world’s biggest producers of plastic pollution.
A freedom of information request filed by Exeposé has found that £801,026 of the University’s endowment fund is invested in Unilever, with the initial stake purchased in May 2019.
According to a Greenpeace report, the company, which owns dozens of consumer goods brands, produced more than 4.1 million tonnes of plastic packaging between 2017 and 2022. An estimated 0.2% of this packaging was recyclable.
Break Free From Plastic’s annual audit, which ranks corporations by their plastic pollution, has named Unilever in its top five global offenders for five years running, last year ranking it in the top three.
The company is notorious for its use of non-recyclable plastic sachets, an “environmental scourge” that has a particularly damaging effect on the Global South. In the 2010s, it produced over 475 billion of these sachets, which even Unilever’s former CEO has condemned as environmentally damaging.
A United Nations working group has also expressed ‘deep concern’ over the company’s handling of a 2007 attack on one of its Kenyan plantations, which saw seven people killed and more than fifty women raped. Following the attack, Unilever stopped paying the wages of surviving workers for six months, and the remediation it was later obliged to pay has been condemned by employees as inadequate and an ‘injustice’.
“Following the attack, Unilever stopped paying the wages of surviving workers for six months.”
Unilever has repeatedly reneged on its governance pledges – backtracking on its environmental targets and promises to pay direct suppliers a living wage by 2030.
Exeter University’s ethical investment policy commits it to only investing “in entities that exhibit best class standards of behaviour and performance in a broad range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.” Under the ‘E’ of ‘ESG’, the University lists factors including pollution and sustainability; under the ‘S’ it lists factors including human rights and employee relations.
The University’s investment in Unilever comes from its endowment fund, which is managed day-to-day by Rathbone Greenbank, whose website advertises a commitment to “sustainable and ethical investment strategies” that “make a positive impact on the world around us.” The University told Exeposé that “investment managers are empowered to make the investment decisions as long as they are in line with the [ethical] policy.”
When pressed on whether this investment contravened its ‘best in class’ ESG approach, the University simply reiterated that the “investment policy continues to be to only invest in companies that demonstrate the highest standards of environmental and social behaviour.”
It added, “the policy also requires Rathbones Greenbank to engage with companies to influence and hold companies to account for their environmental and social impact.” However, given that it has a market cap of over £116 billion, it is unclear how the University proposes that it can “influence” Unilever’s corporate policy.
The Exeter Students Guild has issued a statement, saying “We are committed to sustainability and transparency. Concerns about the University’s investment in Unilever, identified as a major global polluter, raise important questions about aligning financial decisions with our community’s values.”
“Concerns about the University’s investment in Unilever, identified as a major global polluter, raise important questions about aligning financial decisions with our community’s values.”
Exeter Student’s Guild
“We encourage the University to provide greater transparency on how its sustainability commitments are being upheld. The Guild remains dedicated to supporting students in advocating for a sustainable and inclusive future.”
Last month, the University announced on social media that it was “delighted” to accept a Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Leadership’.
