Colgate-Palmolive has issued a new Policy on No Deforestation, including a pledge to achieve full traceability of its palm oil supply back to the plantation by 2015.
The policy commits the company to responsibly source forest commodities of pulp and paper, palm oil, soy and beef tallow. The move follows similar ones by companies that fared poorly in a recent scorecard on palm oil policies released by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Colgate has joined the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) in pledging to mobilize resources to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020, and this policy will enable Colgate to fulfill this pledge, the company said.
The policy includes:
- Obtaining verification that pulp and paper materials from high priority countries are of low risk of coming from controversial sources contributing to deforestation
- Increasing purchase of physical Certified Sustainable Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil where possible each year, and continuing to purchase GreenPalm Certificates to cover the remaining percentage of our requirements, gradually phasing out the need for the purchase each year
- Requiring additional independent verification that the palm oil supply to Colgate does not come from areas where High Carbon Stocks (HCS) and High Conservation Value (HCV) forests were deforested; fire was used for clearance; and peat lands were developed into plantations or drained
- Procuring soy and soy derivatives that are not linked to deforestation by 2017
- Requiring all applicable tallow suppliers to be in compliance with the “Minimum Criteria for Industrial Scale Cattle Operations in the Brazilian Amazon Biome” by 2017.
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