BP Biddappa to Drive Sustainability for Unilever Subsidiary in South Asia: 4 Things to Know 

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a subsidiary of consumer goods giant Unilever, has named BP Biddappa (pictured above) to an executive director position that includes sustainability responsibilities for South Asia.

Now part of HUL's management committee, Biddappa's official title is executive director, human resources and chief people, transformation and sustainability officer for South Asia. Biddappa will also join the HUL board as a whole time director -- though that role is subject to shareholder approval. In that role, he will "lead the people agenda for South Asia as well as drive the transformation interventions from a business, organization, and sustainability perspective," HUL said.

Here are four things to know about Biddappa's experience and HUL's sustainability strategy.

1. Business Scope and Scale: HUL, backed by 90,000 employees, is India’s largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Company. HUL is a subsidiary of Unilever, a global supplier of food, home care, personal care and refreshment products. Mainstream Uniliver brands include Dove soap, Breyers ice cream, and Hellmann's mayonnaise. More than 3.4 billion people use Unilever products every day, the company asserts.

2. Sustainability Goals: HUL's sustainability strategy involves the following climate action goals:

• Net zero emissions for all HUL products from sourcing to the point of sale by 2039.
• Halve the greenhouse gas impact of HUL products across the lifecycle by 2030.
• Zero emissions in HUL operations by 2030.
• Replace fossil-fuel-derived carbon with renewable or recycled carbon in all cleaning and laundry product formulations by 2030.
• Communicate a carbon footprint for every product HUL sells.

3. BP Biddappa's Experience: Biddappa previously was chief HR officer for Global Home Care and head, Global Employee Relations for Unilever. He started his over three-decade-long career in Unilever with a factory stint in HUL and then moved on to undertake a variety of roles, from leadership development to business partnering, across several Unilever businesses and led HR for Unilever in Maghreb, Bangladesh, and India, the company said.

4. Executive Perspectives: In a prepared statement, HUL CEO and Managing Director Rohit Jawa said: “An accomplished HR leader with over three decades of experience, Biddappa comes with immense knowledge of transformation and organisational development. I am glad to welcome him to the HUL Leadership and I am confident that his able guidance and leadership will help transform the business to progress further on our future-fit agenda.”

HUL Chief Sustainability Officer: Why Technology Partners Should Care

By 2027, 25% of Global 2000 companies will have assigned a chief sustainability officer (CSO) responsible for meeting their organization’s ESG goals and making ESG-related IT purchasing decisions, according to IDC.

The bottom line: Technology partners need to extend their sales, marketing, engagement and support strategies to successfully fulfill those CSO customer needs, Sustainable Tech Partner believes.