"Don't palm us off" + rspo.org (Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil) + "You need a label to avoid Palm Oil" - Melbourne Business School

Environmental impact of palm oil (Wikipedia) ...Significant greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation, mainly in tropical areas, accounts for up to one-third of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions... ...responsible for over 80% (~88%) of world oil palm production, Indonesia and Malaysia... ...In 2010, the Nature Conservancy took representatives of America’s National Farmers Union and the American Farmland Trust to Brazil to see how illegal forest clearance was "hurting US businesses by flooding markets with cheap and unsustainable products". A new (2010) report from David Gardiner & Associates (Mr. Gardiner served as the Executive Director of the White House Climate Change Task Force during the Clinton Administration), a consultancy, says that protecting the 13,000,000 hectares (50,000 sq mi) of mostly tropical forest that are lost annually to timber, cattle and agricultural production would boost American agricultural revenue by as much as USD$190 billion-270 billion between 2012 and 2030. (PDF, 56 pages, "Farms Here, Forests there" (see page 20 Palm Oil Modeling Results: potential $USD 40B savings))

Conclusion of "Farms Here, Forests there"
Conserving tropical rainforests generates significant financial gains and savings for the U.S. agriculture and timber industries, while also increasing opportunities for residents of rainforest nations.

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Nestlé Media statement, on their website: "Update on deforestation and palm oil. Nestlé is committed to communicating regularly on progress, including holding regular meetings with Greenpeace (report "Frying the Forest")...

Taking action with our suppliers
The supply chain of palm oil is very complex and there are no quick and easy solutions. We have conducted an in depth analysis of our supply chain in order to create transparency and detailed action plans. Read more about the complexity of the palm oil supply chain in the RSPO Supply Chain Systems Overview (pdf, 3.95Mb)..."

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www.rspo.org

In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with a satellite office in Jakarta. RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry - oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs - to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil...

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WWF 2012 Palm Oil Buyers' Scorecard

What is the Scorecard?

The Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard 2011 measures the performance of 132 major retailers and consumer goods manufacturers against 4 areas which show whether these companies are acting responsibly.

The Scorecard focuses on European companies, since they are leading the way in transforming the market for palm oil, and were the first to commit to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). However, it also looks at other markets such as Australia and Japan where some progress is being made.

...In 2008 Unilever, an RSPO member, committed to use only palm oil which is certified as sustainable, by ensuring that the large companies and smallholders that supply it convert to sustainable production by 2015. ...As of 2009, twelve companies including giant retailer X, tied for worst, scoring 0.

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Call for better labeling to support ethical consumption - Melbourne Business School

Mar, 2011

It’s not cost that stop consumers from buying according to their conscience. It’s simply a lack of clear information on the product label.

Research from Melbourne Business School (MBS) has found that if a product clearly reflects factors which impact ethical consumerism on its label, consumers will favour that product over others.

As a result of her research in this area, MBS Professor Jill Klein is calling for manufacturers to improve their labeling to provide consumers with a more informed choice and to increase sales.

Professor Klein based her research on a series of experiments performed at the Melbourne Zoo between April and June last year.  Zoo visitors were asked to select between a food product that did not contain the orangutan-unfriendly palm oil and a virtually equivalent alternative that contained vegetable oil...