The Promise Of A Better Planet

The Role Of ESG Investing In Catalyzing A Paradigm Shift In Business

Abhishek Kothari
6 min readMay 6, 2020

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We cannot choose between growth and sustainability — we must have both — Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever

I began working as an internal auditor at Unilever’s subsidiary Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) in India for over 3 years beginning in the summer of 2001 . My role took me to factories manufacturing home and personal care products ranging from soaps, detergents to shampoos all across India. I also visited a few factories manufacturing fertilizers used in agricultural lands across India. In all of my years, nothing made me prouder of Unilever than its rich heritage. A close second would be its impressive supply chain that straddled the length and breadth of the country. Its reach extended to villages that even government enterprises had failed to penetrate.

Advert for Lifebuoy Soap from Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History (1903).

Unilever has its roots in manufacturing the ‘Lifebuoy’ brand of soaps which remains an icon of personal hygiene even today. I remember seeing Lifebuoy advertisements as a child. After seeing those advertisements and after having worked at…

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Abhishek Kothari

Futurist@The Intersection of Finance, Tech & Humanity. Stories of a Global Language: “Money”. Contributor @ Startup Grind, HackerNoon, HBR