We've talked about how unsustainable palm oil actually was in class multiple times, so it was interesting to me to see this article on Triple Pundit addressing sustainability concerns of the popular cosmetics and candy ingredient.
Palm oil is sourced from forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, and harvesting practices haven't been the best in the past. Unilever had already committed to switching to a more sustainable sourcing plan, but other companies are now jumping on board. The Palm Oil Scorecard developed by the Union of Concerned Scientists lists the major companies that use palm oil in their products and identifies how committed each is to the sustainability initiative. Five companies total are fully committed to deforestation-free palm oil: Nestle, Unilever, Mondelez, L'Oreal, and Reckitt Benckiser. That is five out of 30 of the biggest companies that use palm oil, so clearly there's a lot of room for improvement, but the Palm Oil Scorecard is a very useful tool for transparency of sustainability initiatives.
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