Will Mondelez continue to greenwash palm oil use in 2020?
Update September 04, 2020.
Mondelēz International Advances Sustainable Palm Oil Sourcing with Enhanced Traceability
CHICAGO, Sept. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mondelēz International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ) today announced significant progress in advancing requirements for traceable, forest-monitored palm oil and confirms strong progress against sustainable sourcing goals.
The new requirements include traceability to plantation and satellite monitoring covering all palm oil concessions* supplying mills attributed to the company, against the deforestation criteria set out in its Palm Oil Action Plan. All mills must be identified on Global Forest Watch, with no active grievances against concessions in their direct supply, or operated by the same producer groups elsewhere. In addition, suppliers must have third-party assurance of their monitoring process and systems used and be subject to cross-check by Mondelēz International.
See press release here.
Watch this page as we try to get more details on this astounding move by Mondelez
Mondelēz International Advances Sustainable Palm Oil Sourcing with Enhanced Traceability
CHICAGO, Sept. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mondelēz International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ) today announced significant progress in advancing requirements for traceable, forest-monitored palm oil and confirms strong progress against sustainable sourcing goals.
The new requirements include traceability to plantation and satellite monitoring covering all palm oil concessions* supplying mills attributed to the company, against the deforestation criteria set out in its Palm Oil Action Plan. All mills must be identified on Global Forest Watch, with no active grievances against concessions in their direct supply, or operated by the same producer groups elsewhere. In addition, suppliers must have third-party assurance of their monitoring process and systems used and be subject to cross-check by Mondelēz International.
See press release here.
Watch this page as we try to get more details on this astounding move by Mondelez
Mondelez International, the maker behind popular consumer brands like Cadbury, issued a new press release May 08, 2020 under the glossy title "Mondelēz International Accelerates Progress in Delivering against its Sustainability and Well-being Goals"
The press release made bold claims that Mondelez, with operations from Algeria to Vietnam has "met or exceeded sustainability commitments and goals." For its ingredient supplies, Mondelez stated that it has maintained a 100% RSPO palm oil goal as pasted below.
Sustainable Ingredient Supplies
This peaked our curiosity as Mondelez International has not had a good history of procuring sustainable ingredient supplies. Mondelez rocked the boat on fairly traded cocoa when it started up its own corporate scheme for fairly traded cocoa in the CocoaLife project. The conflicts among the many certification schemes for fairly traded cocoa was well covered by the Financial Times in its special report.
Palm oil certification is less complicated as the dominant certification scheme, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), is the scheme most commonly used by consumer goods manufacturers like Mondelez. But what exactly does it mean when Mondelez said that it has "maintained 100% RSPO palm oil goal?"
The real problem with certification and palm oil deforestation
The best answer to that is in an article published by The Ecologist that looked at Mondelez's use of palm oil.
"Our investigation into Mondelēz’s 2017 RSPO filing and company policy shows that only 1.2 percent of their overall figure was segregated supply (down from 11 percent in 2016), meaning that the palm oil was kept separate from other supplies and could be fully traced back to the mills who processed it and the producers who grew it.
The vast majority of its CSPO was certified under the book and claim scheme, meaning that they bought credits through RSPO-certified supplier segregated supply (down from 11 percent in 2016), meaning that the palm oil was kept separate from other supplies and could be fully traced back to the mills who processed it and the producers who grew it.
The vast majority of its CSPO was certified under the book and claim scheme, meaning that they bought credits through RSPO-certified suppliers.
By relying on third-party traders to take care of their supply, they have removed themselves from the checking process and therefore don’t fully understand their supply chain from producer to the factory.
We know that this book and claim process is often ineffective. Just last month Wilmar, a major trader for Mondelēz was investigated for its close family ties to Gama, a producer who was reported by Greenpeace to have destroyed more than 50,000 hectares of rainforest and tropical peatland in Indonesia in the past five years.
By devolving their role in the supply chain to a third party, Mondelēz is able to tick the CSPO box, without ensuring that the palm oil is from a deforestation-free supply.
To get an updated look since the critique of Mondelez's use of certified palm oil by The Ecologist, we checked the Annual Communications of Progress or ACOP, a communications used by the RSPO to track their member commitments to using sustainable palm oil.
The 2018 ACOP shows that Mondelez used 284,536 tons of palm oil, of which 280,1327 tons was declared "sustainable" through the same Book and Claim process. This is hardly anything to cheer about.
Will Mondelez fail its commitments to the RSPO
If Mondelez were to try and use its press release as a sign that it has met its commitments to the use of sustainably produced palm oil, the RSPO must take action under its newly mandated "Shared Responsibility" platform.
"On 31 October 2019, the Board of Governors of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) approved landmark rules calling for “Shared Responsibility,” and for all members of the organisation to do their part to “Mobilise, Act and Transform” to fulfil its mission...
The new rules state that RSPO Consumer Goods Manufacturers and Retailer members who buy sustainable palm oil are to increase their uptake by an additional 15% (from the previous year’s baseline which will be the 2019 ACOP) for the first year of SR implementation (E.g: If uptake was 10% in the previous year, it should be 25% for year one)."
In simple terms, if Mondelez was to meet its commitment to the RSPO, the company would be buying somewhere around 45,000 tons of physically certified palm oil instead of taking the easy out offered by the RSPO. Paper certification through Greenpalm or its revamped version in PalmTrace had been rejected by other consumer brands as far back as 2016 when Starbucks rejected Greenpalm certificates.
With the new Shared Responsibility program in place, what RPSO members like Mondelez should do to show their commitment to certified palm oil is to buy no less than 15% of it's palm oil supplies as actual certified palm oil, not more pieces of paper. If fellow RSPO members like Upfield which produces under brands like Becel and Flora Proactiv can achieve the buying of physically segregated certified palm oil, what is Mondelez's excuse?
The RSPO's better models of sustainable palm oil maybe hard to source in Algeria but major markets for Mondelez in Australia, Colombia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States of America should have enough production requirements to cover no less than 15% of Mondelez's annual use of palm oil.
The deadline for filing member ACOPs for 2019 has been postponed by the RSPO due to the global problems caused by Covid19. CSPO Watch will be monitoring the ACOPs as they come in, to see if the RSPO will indeed wield a stick to get consumer giants like Mondelez to buy into actual certified palm oil.
Published May, 2020. CSPO Watch
The press release made bold claims that Mondelez, with operations from Algeria to Vietnam has "met or exceeded sustainability commitments and goals." For its ingredient supplies, Mondelez stated that it has maintained a 100% RSPO palm oil goal as pasted below.
Sustainable Ingredient Supplies
- 63% cocoa volume for Chocolate brands sourced through the company’s signature sustainable sourcing program Cocoa Life (up 20 pts vs 2018)
- 65% wheat for biscuit brands in Europe sustainably sourced through the company’s Harmony Wheat program
- Maintained 100% RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Goal) palm oil goal
This peaked our curiosity as Mondelez International has not had a good history of procuring sustainable ingredient supplies. Mondelez rocked the boat on fairly traded cocoa when it started up its own corporate scheme for fairly traded cocoa in the CocoaLife project. The conflicts among the many certification schemes for fairly traded cocoa was well covered by the Financial Times in its special report.
Palm oil certification is less complicated as the dominant certification scheme, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), is the scheme most commonly used by consumer goods manufacturers like Mondelez. But what exactly does it mean when Mondelez said that it has "maintained 100% RSPO palm oil goal?"
The real problem with certification and palm oil deforestation
The best answer to that is in an article published by The Ecologist that looked at Mondelez's use of palm oil.
"Our investigation into Mondelēz’s 2017 RSPO filing and company policy shows that only 1.2 percent of their overall figure was segregated supply (down from 11 percent in 2016), meaning that the palm oil was kept separate from other supplies and could be fully traced back to the mills who processed it and the producers who grew it.
The vast majority of its CSPO was certified under the book and claim scheme, meaning that they bought credits through RSPO-certified supplier segregated supply (down from 11 percent in 2016), meaning that the palm oil was kept separate from other supplies and could be fully traced back to the mills who processed it and the producers who grew it.
The vast majority of its CSPO was certified under the book and claim scheme, meaning that they bought credits through RSPO-certified suppliers.
By relying on third-party traders to take care of their supply, they have removed themselves from the checking process and therefore don’t fully understand their supply chain from producer to the factory.
We know that this book and claim process is often ineffective. Just last month Wilmar, a major trader for Mondelēz was investigated for its close family ties to Gama, a producer who was reported by Greenpeace to have destroyed more than 50,000 hectares of rainforest and tropical peatland in Indonesia in the past five years.
By devolving their role in the supply chain to a third party, Mondelēz is able to tick the CSPO box, without ensuring that the palm oil is from a deforestation-free supply.
To get an updated look since the critique of Mondelez's use of certified palm oil by The Ecologist, we checked the Annual Communications of Progress or ACOP, a communications used by the RSPO to track their member commitments to using sustainable palm oil.
The 2018 ACOP shows that Mondelez used 284,536 tons of palm oil, of which 280,1327 tons was declared "sustainable" through the same Book and Claim process. This is hardly anything to cheer about.
Will Mondelez fail its commitments to the RSPO
If Mondelez were to try and use its press release as a sign that it has met its commitments to the use of sustainably produced palm oil, the RSPO must take action under its newly mandated "Shared Responsibility" platform.
"On 31 October 2019, the Board of Governors of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) approved landmark rules calling for “Shared Responsibility,” and for all members of the organisation to do their part to “Mobilise, Act and Transform” to fulfil its mission...
The new rules state that RSPO Consumer Goods Manufacturers and Retailer members who buy sustainable palm oil are to increase their uptake by an additional 15% (from the previous year’s baseline which will be the 2019 ACOP) for the first year of SR implementation (E.g: If uptake was 10% in the previous year, it should be 25% for year one)."
In simple terms, if Mondelez was to meet its commitment to the RSPO, the company would be buying somewhere around 45,000 tons of physically certified palm oil instead of taking the easy out offered by the RSPO. Paper certification through Greenpalm or its revamped version in PalmTrace had been rejected by other consumer brands as far back as 2016 when Starbucks rejected Greenpalm certificates.
With the new Shared Responsibility program in place, what RPSO members like Mondelez should do to show their commitment to certified palm oil is to buy no less than 15% of it's palm oil supplies as actual certified palm oil, not more pieces of paper. If fellow RSPO members like Upfield which produces under brands like Becel and Flora Proactiv can achieve the buying of physically segregated certified palm oil, what is Mondelez's excuse?
The RSPO's better models of sustainable palm oil maybe hard to source in Algeria but major markets for Mondelez in Australia, Colombia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States of America should have enough production requirements to cover no less than 15% of Mondelez's annual use of palm oil.
The deadline for filing member ACOPs for 2019 has been postponed by the RSPO due to the global problems caused by Covid19. CSPO Watch will be monitoring the ACOPs as they come in, to see if the RSPO will indeed wield a stick to get consumer giants like Mondelez to buy into actual certified palm oil.
Published May, 2020. CSPO Watch
Update August, 2020. Mondelez continues to fail in sharing its responsibility to support the RSPO's growers in the uptake of physical certified palm oil for 2019.
The 2019 Annual Communications of Progress shows an increase in the use of palm oil for Mondelez brands. Click on the images below which are linked to the ACOP reports on RSPO's website.
The 2019 Annual Communications of Progress shows an increase in the use of palm oil for Mondelez brands. Click on the images below which are linked to the ACOP reports on RSPO's website.
Mondelez Annual Communications of Progress to RSPO 2019
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Mondelez Annual Communications of Progress to RSPO 2018
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Mondelez's increased use of certified palm oil continues to rely heavily on the "ineffective" Book and Claim model of certified palm oil as the use of Mass Balance and Segregated CSPO remains woefully low.
As for its purchases of palm oil in 2020, Mondelez repeated the same position stated in its 2018 ACOP:
"3.4.1 If the previous target year for CG.3.4 has not been met, please explain why.
Time bound plan to convert to 100% RSPO certified sustainable palm oil and oil palm products from physical supply chains (Identity Preserved, Segregated and/or Mass Balance) not determined nor required."
Bear in mind that the RSPO's Shared Responsibility rules were approved in October 2019 and Mondelez's ACOP was submitted after that. This should concern the grower members of the RSPO.
Published August, 2020. CSPO Watch
As for its purchases of palm oil in 2020, Mondelez repeated the same position stated in its 2018 ACOP:
"3.4.1 If the previous target year for CG.3.4 has not been met, please explain why.
Time bound plan to convert to 100% RSPO certified sustainable palm oil and oil palm products from physical supply chains (Identity Preserved, Segregated and/or Mass Balance) not determined nor required."
Bear in mind that the RSPO's Shared Responsibility rules were approved in October 2019 and Mondelez's ACOP was submitted after that. This should concern the grower members of the RSPO.
Published August, 2020. CSPO Watch