Europe and Australia/ New Zealand are leading the way
with consumers demanding more sustainable palm oil.
Back in 2010, all the palm oil requirements of our European
business, as well as our Australian and New Zealand
businesses, were covered by GreenPalm certificates. By the
same year, all of our direct crude palm oil use in Europe was
both traceable and certified.
By the end of 2014: • All palm oil bought for Unilever’s food business in
Europe will be traceable certified (RSPO segregated
sources). This commitment expands beyond crude palm
oil, to include all palm kernel oil, palm oil fractions and
blends and represents 9% of Unilever’s annual global
volumes;
• Two of our global personal care factories will start
using RSPO mass balance certified palm oil;
• Remaining volumes of Unilever’s palm oil use
will be covered with GreenPalm certificates.
Moving towards traceable certified palm oil in Europe
has not been straightforward, as the majority of the palm
oil we use in the region is in the form of blends, fractions
and derivatives e.g. palm stearin. Our decision to convert
the region to traceable certified resulted in a tender to
consolidate our sourcing to a few selected long-term
suppliers for the region. All of the palm oil sourced for
our foods business in Europe is now traceable to certified
plantations. These are small yet significant achievements,
but we recognise that on a global scale, the availability of
segregated palm oil supply chains is limited as demand is
currently very low in regions outside of Europe.
While the sourcing of traceable and certified palm oil
for Unilever’s food business in Europe is an important
accomplishment, we recognise that bringing more
transparency upstream from mill to move associated
plantations to sustainable practices will be the most
impactful difference that Unilever can make