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Our Code of Business Principles commits us to running our operations with honesty, integrity and openness. Our approach is always to understand issues of concern and respond.

  • Kodaikanal, India

    Kodaikanal factory: summary

    In 2001, Greenpeace and others brought to Hindustan Unilever Limited’s (then Hindustan Lever Ltd.) attention that glass scrap containing residual mercury had been sold to a local scrap dealer from its thermometer factory. Investigation by the company found that there was a breach of the company's established procedures. The company immediately closed manufacturing operations at the factory, informed the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and initiated a comprehensive investigation.

    Independent environmental studies found no adverse impact outside the former factory premises. Soil remediation was required in identified areas within the site and in a small patch at the factory boundary along Levange Path. A study by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) concluded that the site posed no ecological risk to the adjacent Pambar Shola Forest. A 2015 study also reported that mercury concentrations in samples from outside locations, including Kodaikanal Lake and the Pambar River, were within safe levels.

    HUL completed soil remediation in 2025 in accordance with directions from central and state authorities and confirmation by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the site-specific remediation standard, under the supervision of scientific institutions. Post-remediation work is under way, including dismantling machinery and demolishing the remaining factory buildings.

    Several independent medical studies and reviews on the health of our former workers have not found any evidence of harm arising from past exposure at the factory. The reviews included medical examinations and studies by the Certifying Surgeon from the Inspectorate of Factories, the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC), TNO, the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH). An expert committee convened by the Madras High Court also examined the health of the workers. These reviews did not find evidence linking former employees’ clinical conditions to past mercury exposure at the factory.

    Key facts about the former Kodaikanal factory

    Find out more about Kodaikanal here

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