CGF Publishes Palm Oil Sourcing Guidelines for Consumer Goods, Retail Industries

The Consumer Goods Forum has published guidelines to help the consumer goods and retail industries to achieve zero net deforestation by 2020.

The Sustainable Palm Oil Sourcing Guidelines aim to assist companies in designing their own policies for sourcing palm oil more sustainably, and were developed by CGF retailer and manufacturer members, with input from standard setting organizations, NGOs, banks and suppliers.

A key feature of the guidelines is a two-stage approach that lays out steps to enable companies (from any industry) to start the journey to sustainable palm oil, together with further steps necessary for a fully sustainable palm oil supply, CGF says.

Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the world, CFG says. Malaysia and Indonesia are leading producers accounting for 86 percent of global production. Although potentially one of the more sustainable vegetable oils, there is serious concern that rapid expansion of palm oil plantations has on occasions resulted in loss of valuable tropical forests and social conflict.

A host of companies have recently made sustainable palm oil commitments, including Mars, Danone, ConAgra, Hershey and Krispy Kreme, among others.