Palm oil is a globally traded commodity used in a wide array of common consumer products, from shampoo to cookies. And much of this palm oil is produced in ways that involve the destruction of tropical forests and peatlands, adding to global warming emissions and reducing habitat for many already threatened species.
The good news is that palm oil can be produced without deforestation—and many companies have begun to make public commitments to use deforestation-free palm oil in their products.
The bad news is that too many companies are lagging behind, with weak commitments or none at all. UCS is asking consumers to tell these companies that deforestation is an unacceptable ingredient in their products.
In 2014 UCS released the first edition of our Palm Oil Scorecard. The scorecard evaluated 30 companies that produce major brands across the packaged food, fast food, and personal care product sectors for their commitments to use deforestation-free palm oil.
For 2015 UCS produced a new edition of the scorecard, recalculating each company's score to account for their progress (or lack thereof) during 2014. UCS also added a new sector to the mix, scoring the store brands of 10 retail stores (including supermarket, pharmacy, and discount stores) for the first time.
(Source: UCS Palm Oil Scorecard 2015: Fries, Face Wash, Forests)
Scoring was based on commitments from official company sources, which were publically available as of January 16, 2015. These included pages on each company’s website, press releases, annual sustainability and other corporate reports, company policy documents, and companies’ most recent Annual Communication of Progress (ACOP) to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
One or more representatives from each company were contacted to let them know they would be appearing in our scorecard. Although we did our own independent research to uncover all relevant materials from a company’s website and reporting to the RSPO, this was done to allow companies the opportunity to weigh in in the unlikely event that an important document was overlooked.
This metric represent the sum of the scores obtained by companies in the following indicators:
(Source: UCS Palmoil Scorecard Methodology)