Unilever claims that its purpose is to make sustainable living common place. They say that they achieve this through developing new business practises that grow both Unilever and communities. Unilever also claim to meet people's "ever-increasing desire" for more sustainable products in order to create a "brighter future for everyone". The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan was created to help double the size of Unilever businesses, whilst reducing environmental footprint, and increasing positive social impact. Unilever also claim to have partnerships which "change things on a global scale", such as deforestation, climate change, sustainable agriculture, as well as support for smallholder farmers. These partnerships also claim to improve water, sanitation and hygiene. 

In 2010, Unilever spent £689 million in research and development, as well as having 6000 people working in R&D in regions across the globe. They also file between 250 and 350 patent applications a year, with 20,000 registered patents and patent applications. One of these innovations is what they call an "ice structuring protein". This allows to make ice cream that are lower in fat, sugar and calories whilst including more fruit. This helps the ice cream to better hold their shape, and are less messy to eat. The protein allows ice creams to melt less easily, meaning that ice creams can be eaten in hot countries and by small children. 

During the 1910s, the Unilever that we know today was two separate companies- Lever Brothers from the United Kingdom, and Margarine Unie from the Netherlands. This merge made sense, the Lever Brothers harvested palm oil, a major raw ingredient for margarines. This meant that the merged company, Unilever, grew and grew due to increased sales. In the 30s, new businesses were launched in Africa and Latin America. The Nazi occupation meant that European investment couldn't happen, so Unilever acquired businesses in the UK and US, including Lipton and Birds Eye. Over the years major brands we know today were launched, such as Dove, Lipton, PG Tips and Vaseline. Today Unilever own over 400 brands in 190 countries.