Looking back on the 2026 World Cup, it was undoubtedly an emotional roller coaster for fans. From fun and comradery at fan festivals, to loss and controversy, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of soccer hype, shwag and of course, lots of corporate advertising. We joined the festivities to let Dove – official personal care sponsor, whatever that means – know that if it really cared about men’s health like its ads suggest, it’s time to kick plastic out of its packaging. 

Unilever’s Dove brand used the World Cup to endlessly promote its Men + care products in a campaign about protecting men’s ‘sensitive parts’. Dove is always selling itself as a company that cares  – about ‘real beauty’, empowerment, and health. But its plastic-centred business model tells a different story. 

Billions of Dove branded plastic packaged products are produced every year, contributing to a growing public health emergency. Unilever is responsible for hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic entering global markets, driving consequences on a global scale. As a top global plastic polluter according to brand audits conducted over several years, Unilever is a major contributor to the waste and pollution crisis. 

Plastic pollution is a public health issue at every stage. Plastics are made with thousands of chemicals, many of which are a concern to human health. Microplastics are being found nearly everywhere, including our bodies. The growing body of science on plastic and health make it hard to ignore the role that major consumer goods polluters are playing in our collective plastic burden.

Recent headlines about a possible connection between exposure to microplastics and/or plastic chemicals and impacts on sexual health and fertility have us thinking about…the package.  

Early studies reveal microplastics may be showing up in penile tissue and semen. Some plastic associated chemicals are capable of interfering with male hormone systems. A new study has identified how exposure to polyethylene microplastics could contribute to erectile dysfunction in mammals. With all the human suffering the plastic pollution crisis already causes, the prospect of plastic impacting sexual health is a striker’s kick in the balls. 

During quarter finals, as fans gathered at an event near the Brooklyn Bridge, Greenpeace USA lit up the bridge and the New York skyline with a message for World Cup fans: “Defend Your Balls. Dove, Kick Plastic Out.” As a trusted brand, we thought its customers should know that Dove is not only a top sponsor of World Cup, it’s also a top sponsor of plastic pollution, and that’s not only an environmental problem, it’s a human health concern. 

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The Plastic Detox documentary created a buzz earlier this year because it raised some important, and alarming, questions about how exposure to plastic’s chemical cocktail through everyday products could be taking a toll on sexual health and fertility. While the science isn’t yet at a stage to connect every dot, growing concerns add yet another reason that plastic-dependent companies like Unilever should halt business as usual and consider what it could be contributing to. 

Microplastics and plastic associated chemicals can enter our bodies through what we eat and drink, the air we breathe, and what we put on our bodies. Microplastics have the potential to damage human cells and tissues, and plastic chemicals include known endocrine disruptors, some of which have been identified in the human body, have shown evidence of detrimental health effects even at very low levels. Plastic pollution is a growing public health emergency, and while policy makers react in slow motion instead of proactively with the precautionary approach, companies like Unilever are taking advantage of the lack of health and plastic regulations that would turn off their throwaway plastic machines once and for all.

Somehow companies like Unilever have normalized pollution as a part of their business model, and work hard to normalize false solutions that never get at the heart of the issue – making too much plastic. But the harm that plastic packaging has caused to people and the planet, particularly in countries in South and Southeast Asia, and Africa that have been flooded with sachets,  is anything but normal, or ethical. Greenpeace UK first shone a light on Dove’s toxic influence with the release of its 2023 report, and since then the movement to ditch sachets and return to more traditional low waste product delivery practices has grown louder. Some communities have clearly said enough is enough.

Unilever knows it has a plastic problem. So what will leadership do next? Dove Men + care customers need a win.

Just days ahead of the World Cup 2026 finals, Greenpeace USA activists unfurled a 50-foot banner outside Dove’s USA headquarters with the message “Dove: Care for Men’s Health, Kick Plastic Out.”  Activists dressed in soccer jerseys also handed out ‘red cards’ penalizing Dove. 

Unilever must immediately take the following actions to step up its game. 

• Commit to phase out plastic packaging, starting with sachets, 
• Create a roadmap to transition to reuse and refill globally
• Continue to call for a strong Global Plastics Treaty that cuts production
• Collaborate to grow support for strong regulations on reduction and reuse

Greenpeace and thousands of people have asked Dove to ditch plastic sachets and swap its plastic packaging for reusable alternatives. Dove has invested in various reuse projects, including the much anticipated city-wide, multi-brand, multi-retailer reuse initiative in Ottawa, Canada that is set to launch later this year. Various Dove personal care products will be part of the project, meaning reusable packaging alternatives will actually be available on store shelves. Unilever’s role in this reuse project is the type of leadership we need more of from the company, and what we don’t need more of is 100% plastic packaging or paper-based sachet false solutions that continue to perpetuate a broken, harmful, plastic-dependent, single-use system that continues to drive the waste and pollution crisis worldwide, every single day. 

Unilever is demonstrating that it knows that healthier, plastic-free, reusable packaging options for personal care products exist, but still refuses to expedite a reuse transition and put people before profits. 

Companies serious about ending their plastic problem should commit to ditch plastic and call for a strong Global Plastics Treaty that accelerates a shift from plastic-dependent business models to plastic-free, zero waste, non-toxic reuse systems worldwide.

Join us in urging Unilever to kick plastic out of its packaging! 

Tell Dove: Kick out plastic to protect health!

It’s time for Dove to close the gap between its marketing and its actions.

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Sarah King is a senior campaign strategist for the Greenpeace Plastic Free Future campaign.

The Convention on Biological Diversity, or CBD, is one of the three conventions  signed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Every two years, representatives from 196 countries, and many non-governmental actors like Indigenous Peoples and civil society meet to discuss, negotiate and decide on measures to promote the protection of Earth’s biodiversity. This year, the CBD’s COP17 is happening in October, in Yerevan, Armenia.

While these meetings can sound like something very distant from our everyday lives, they are gatherings where crucial decisions, that directly impact our lives and the future of the planet, are taken. From deadly heatwaves to floods, extreme weather events are wreaking havoc on the world, taking thousands of lives and threatening millions more. So the COP is a moment where governments must listen to our voices and take action for the planet. 

The world’s forests are being devastated by industrial agriculture, logging, and by a new rush for minerals. Oceans are plundered by industrial fishing, and deep sea mining is threatening to destroy an area of our planet that has barely been studied. Healthy oceans and functioning forests are vital to maintain the planet’s web of life. Protecting Earth’s ecosystems is also crucial in the fight against the climate crisis, for the lives and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and for the survival of thousands of species, including ourselves.

What is the most recent progress at the CBD?

In 2022, COP15 delivered the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) to “take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss” by 2030. Protecting and restoring at least 30% of land and sea by 2030, the 30×30 targets, are key targets of the framework. This global commitment is not just an environmental aspiration, it is necessary to prevent irreversible ecosystem collapse and biodiversity loss and limit warming to 1.5°C. But the 30×30 target progress review must look beyond area coverage, and there is an equally important need to establish much better policy coherence with other conventions and agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the Global Ocean Treaty. 

Other key targets of the KM-GBF are stressing the need to mobilise enough finance to implement the framework – through increasing public finance and finding innovative ways to do so, and through phasing out and reorienting harmful subsidies. 

In 2024, COP16 established a new body (SB8j) dedicated to Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights, roles, territories and knowledge. Indigenous Peoples and local communities have protected Earth’s vital ecosystems for generations while resisting colonialism and the extraction of the planet’s natural resources. Their knowledge and relationship with nature demonstrate that ecosystems are most resilient when local peoples who depend on them have the power to defend and manage their territories. Yet, their participation in decision making processes related to their lands have been historically sidelined. 

Recognising and respecting Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights, and recognising their contribution to conservation action is the foundation for closing the 30×30 implementation gap through a human rights-based approach, and the creation of the SB8j is a major step to ensure Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ equitable participation in decision-making at the CBD. 

What governments must do at the CBD COP17

This year, governments will review the collective progress in the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, providing a critical moment to assess whether or not the world is on track to achieve its 2030 goals and targets. Governments must take this opportunity to deliver on their commitments by prioritising the protection and restoration of high integrity ecosystems through a human rights-based approach, and by closing the biodiversity finance gap with truly innovative approaches, such as the reform of global and national economic and fiscal policies.

Greenpeace is calling on governments to:

1. Align their national biodiversity plans and strategies, spatial planning and conservation laws with international human rights standards, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and equitable governance principles.
2. Recognise and scale up Indigenous and local community-led conservation initiatives to close the implementation gap of the KM-GBF, particularly Goal A, Target 3, Target 22 and Section C, and support the recognition of Indigenous and Traditional Territories (ITTs) as a distinct, rights-based contribution to Target 3 implementation, without forcing them into protected areas or Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECM) models.
3. Support equitable, predictable and rights-based direct access finance mechanisms for Indigenous Peoples and local communities through existing and future biodiversity finance mechanisms, including the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), the Cali Fund, the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) and other international funding structures.
4. Ensure a coordinated approach between the Rio Conventions for Parties to meet the KM-GBF objectives, enhancing cooperation and policy coherence among the Conventions and maximising synergies between national plans and strategies and monitoring and reporting, to align implementation at the global level and prioritise action where it is most needed. 
5. Improve consistency across climate, biodiversity, human rights and trade-related reporting systems through a harmonised approach to definitions, monitoring methodologies, degradation indicators and ecosystem integrity metrics.
6. Establish legal and regulatory frameworks that demonstrate due diligence to achieve the 2030 targets, including enforceable mechanisms for monitoring, transparency, accountability and remediation. Such frameworks should include a non-deterioration principle for primary and high-integrity ecosystems, preventing activities that cause measurable declines in ecosystem integrity.
7. Align financial systems with due diligence obligations and ecosystem integrity objectives
   • Repurpose subsidies and trade incentives that promote industrial exploitation and resource expansion, such as fossil fuels, agribusiness and harmful forestry practices.
   • Identify, prevent and address the climate, biodiversity, and human rights risks associated with investments, lending, and insurance activities that contribute to deforestation and forest degradation. 
   • Redirect financial incentives towards agroecology and supporting small-scale food producers, to achieve a just transition in the food systems sector, while scaling public finance and fiscal tools that reward protection, restoration and community stewardship, including direct access to finance for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. 
8. Phase out harmful industrial activities, rejecting offset-driven, extractivist, destructive approaches that damage ecosystems and biodiversity, undermine rights, or enable continued marginalisation of local people.
9. Recognise forest degradation as a major driver of ecosystem loss, moving beyond narrow approaches to deforestation and forest-cover loss and adopting ecosystem-integrity-based approaches.
10. Enhance synergies between the CBD and the Global Ocean Treaty (BBNJ) to drive a seamless network of fully and highly protected ocean sanctuaries across the blue planet, from coastal waters to the high seas, while safeguarding marine ecosystems against high-risk destruction such as deep sea mining through applying the precautionary principle and the phase-out of harmful public finance, subsidies and incentives.

How to correct the course on ecosystem protection

Indigenous Peoples, local and coastal communities’ ways of life have always been shaped by a deep connection to their territories. They are proof that the path to healthy oceans and forests runs through the people protecting them. Two recent Greenpeace International reports showcase real solutions led by Indigenous Peoples, local and coastal communities, with examples of initiatives that can be strengthened and multiplied:

• The Real Community Solutions is an interactive map showing case-studies that demonstrate practical and effective pathways to forest protection through community-led initiatives, while highlighting how direct access to financial resources is essential to promote such initiatives with a decolonised approach to conservation.
• The report Global Ocean Justice Now makes the case that the world’s ’30×30′ ocean protection targets cannot be met through top-down conservation models that sideline coastal communities. Drawing on four in-depth case studies from Chile, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, the report documents both the cost of exclusion and the results of community-led stewardship while arguing  that rights-based conservation is not only the most just approach, but the most effective one.

The briefing Beyond Deforestation: Ecosystem Integrity and the Emerging Legal Paradigm, argues that existing legal and policy frameworks continue to underestimate the significance of forest degradation by focusing primarily on deforestation, while failing to adequately address the loss of ecosystem integrity caused by logging, extractive activity, and global commodity supply chains. This disconnect between ecological reality and legal governance has become increasingly clear, with the defining question for forest governance in the coming decade not simply being whether forests remain standing, but whether they remain functioning. 

Greenpeace International, together with Mighty Earth, Rainforest Foundation Norway and Fern, released an indicative global Restricted Areas Map and Framework, which provides a prime example for why high integrity ecosystems need to be protected against extractive activities, and these activities need to be regulated, by making the argument that the proposed framework is a crucial step to ensure mining does not destroy essential biodiversity, natural ecosystems, carbon storage and freshwater systems.

Ana Clis Ferreira is a forest campaigner at Greenpeace Brazil. Her journey is defined by a lifetime of dedication to building bridges between environmentalism and marginalized communities. At the age of 27, she has already accomplished a great deal, committing herself to driving change far beyond what she once thought possible. Please, meet Ana Clis.

How did your story with Greenpeace begin?

My story with Greenpeace began in an unusual way. Back in 2016, I became a donor after meeting a fundraising volunteer with Greenpeace Brazil whose enthusiasm inspired me so much. The following year, when I needed to cancel my contribution, I received an invitation to become a volunteer in the organisation. I accepted.

Still, I felt there was a disconnect between what I was doing and learning as a volunteer and the reality of the marginalised communities I belonged to. I lived far away, and it took me four hours a day on public transport to commute to and from the Greenpeace Brazil office in São Paulo. After two years, I decided to step away—though the connection was never truly broken.

When did you return to Greenpeace and how were things different?

Yes! I returned to the volunteer group a year later and created Raízes (Roots), a project focused on working in favelas and urban Indigenous territories. Our mission was to connect communities and bring environmental issues to less reached, peripheral, low-income neighbourhoods, whilst also introducing these neighbourhoods’ struggles to environmental movements.

One of our initiatives—which included talks in schools—was organising a “climate funk party” in a remote area of São Paulo called Cidade Tiradentes, with the backing of the Greenpeace Brazil climate campaign team. Named Baile na Terra (Party on Earth), the project brought together over 150 people, while we also ran several initiatives in public educational spaces across the sprawling city. It helped bridge the gap.

Then you had another very deep experience as a volunteer, which was to flyover the Amazon rainforest.

Indeed. Five years after becoming a volunteer, I was invited to join a flyover over Rondônia, in the Amazon. Seeing the vastness of the rainforest sharing the horizon with wildfires had a transformative impact on me. I wept at the forest destruction and felt tiny in the face of such a colossal problem, but I also felt motivated that I could do something to help and that the true power lay in collective action. And soon after, a campaigner vacancy opened up on the Greenpeace Brazil Forests team. My colleagues supported my application. I was hired, and my volunteering became my profession!

What have been the challenges of activism and what have you learned along the way?

Throughout my journey as an activist, I have often felt guilty for not being able to spend more time with my family. However, my heart found comfort when my father came to understand what I did, and my mother and grandmother proudly told me that my feet tread in places theirs never will.

I am driven by a strong sense of justice, community spirit, and education. I understand what it feels like to be invisible, so today, my work is all about trying to lift those marginalised people out of invisibility.

*Inspiring Stories is a global video series of interviews with Greenpeace staff and volunteers that blends personal narratives with insights on eco-social justice. Through stories of People Power, we show that changemakers aren’t unreachable superheroes, but ordinary people whose active hope, resilience and pursuit of change can inspire others – and change the world.

Karina Miotto is a Content Editor with Greenpeace International.

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From calls for the protection of the deep sea in Jamaica and Switzerland, to nuclear protests in Spain. Here are a few of our favourite images from Greenpeace work around the world this week.

Jamaica – Greenpeace International, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition plus other organisations and allies join a ‘paddle out’ at Jamnesia Surf School near Kingston, Jamaica. To call for the protection of the deep sea and to stop deep sea mining before it starts. Paddle out participants also formed the words “NO Deep Sea Mining” on the beach.

Switzerland – Greenpeace Switzerland activists have screened a video at five symbolic locations across Switzerland highlighting the Swiss company Allseas’ involvement in deep-sea mining. The video reveals what the tranquil village of Châtel-St-Denis has to do with Donald Trump and one of the greatest plundering operations in modern history.

Spain – Greenpeace Spain activists displayed a banner in Madrid on the Moncloa Arch with the message: “Pedro, keep your word. Say NO to nuclear power”. Through this action, the organisation is once again calling on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to respect the nuclear phase-out timetable agreed by his government with the electricity companies in 2019. The protest comes after the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) issued a report setting out the mandatory conditions for extending the operational life of the Almaraz nuclear power station in Extremadura.

Greenpeace has been a pioneer of photo activism for more than 50 years, and remains committed to bearing witness and exposing environmental injustice through the images we capture.

To see more Greenpeace photos and videos, please visit our Media Library.