KFC UK/Ireland will no longer use packaging from suppliers actively involved in rainforest clearance, after months of pressure from Greenpeace.
In an updated policy statement, KFC’s UK unit committed to working only with suppliers who can demonstrate sustainable forest management throughout their supply chain. The fast-food company says it will only purchase products from suppliers who source wood, paper and pulp products from well-managed sustainable sources.
According to Greenpeace, the pledge means that KFC UK & Ireland will stop using paper from Asia Pulp & Paper, the world’s third largest pulp and paper producer. Earlier this year, Greenpeace released a report claiming that APP had systematically violated Indonesia’s laws protecting ramin, an internationally protected rainforest tree species.
The Greenpeace report said a number of major global companies including KFC, Barnes & Noble, Danone, Xerox and Walmart sourced products from APP that contained rainforest fiber. Nearly all of the companies named have taken action to remove APP from their supply chains.
In June, APP pledged that all of its suppliers will be certified under the voluntary Indonesian sustainable forest management scheme by 2020. The company also has agreed to suspend natural-forest clearing on its own plantations in Indonesia and give its suppliers until the end of 2014 to comply with its new higher standards of forest conservation.
KFC’s updated policy says the company will require suppliers to prove sourcing of wood fiber is certified by a third party meeting the most rigorous forest management standards. The company will accept paper and packaging certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and national certification systems that are endorsed by the Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification, such as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
KFC aims to move towards 100 percent FSC accredited paper or board and to increase the proportion certified year-on-year.
The company made several other packaging commitments, including working with suppliers to identify how to increase the amount of recycled products that makes up its packaging total. KFC UK has previously said it aims to increase the volume of recycled material used in all of its packaging year-on-year as a percentage of its total sales.