Sustainable Palm Oil: Europe’s Business

The publication, sub-titled “Facts, analysis and actions to leverage impact” presents the state of palm oil in Europe, which has seen total imports of the commodity declining, and calls for companies and other stakeholders to take action and drive the growth of sustainable palm oil worldwide.

One of the key action areas proposed for palm oil end users, including retailers and manufacturers headquartered in Europe, is to join landscape initiatives to achieve sustainability at a jurisdictional or regional scale. Such action holds the potential for scale as different stakeholders, including producers and local governments, get together to craft joint strategies, adopt a multi-commodity approach, and would enable downstream companies in contributing to holistic impacts on the ground.

The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is developing a mechanism for jurisdictional certification; its jurisdictional approach piloting framework is available here. IDH has been building SourceUp as a platform to connect landscape initiatives working on sustainability for various commodities with interested companies. For other examples of company action at landscape and jurisdictional scale, explore this guidance developed by WWF, Proforest, and the Tropical Forest Alliance here.

The report also recommends other key action areas to improve sustainability of palm oil supply namely improving traceability, committing and implementing to No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation, joining a palm oil initiative for sustainable sourcing, and getting certified.