The Body Shop is claiming to be the first cosmetics retailer to have introduced ‘sustainable’ palm oil across its supply chain.
The UK-based multinational has switched all sourcing to Daabon, a
certified organic producer in Colombia that works with co-operatives to
put palm oil production on a sustainable footing. Daabon has been
audited against pilot Principles and Criteria for the Production of
Sustainable Palm Oil developed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm
Oil (RSPO), which is a cross-sector group of more than 250
organizations.
The Body Shop says its new policy will cover sales of 14.5 million bars of soap a year in more than 2200 stores in 57 countries.
The huge growth in demand for palm oil – showing a sixfold increase
since the mid-1980s – has led to the clearance of large areas of
primary rainforest for plantations, particularly in south-east Asia.
This has led to environmental problems and poor conditions for those
working the fields. WWF estimates that around 1.3m hectares (3.2m
acres) of forest will be cleared for oil palm plantations this year in
Borneo alone.
A full certification scheme is expected to be in place by the end of
the year, and The Body Shop, which is on the RSPO organizing committee,
believes most palm oil production could be sustainable within three
years if other companies use the system.
Matthias Diemer, a palm oil specialist with WWF Switzerland, said The
Body Shop’s ‘pioneering role’ signalled ‘the start of the growth of
sustainable palm oil in the cosmetics sector’ and urged other companies
to follow suit. The Body Shop, which was taken over by the French
cosmetics company L’Oreal last year, is to encourage other large
companies in its sector to adopt the criteria.
Friends
of Earth has lodged an official complaint with RSPO about the
activities of Wilmar, one of the world’s largest palm oil producers. It
claims the Indonesian-Singaporean company, which is an RSPO member, is
not observing its own policies on responsible palm oil production, and
that there are ‘significant gaps’ between the undertakings in its
corporate responsibility action plan and what it actually does. An RSPO
grievance panel will investigate the allegations.
