Last week, Kroger announced it would add electric vehicle charging stations to 300 supermarkets and now it’s joining other corporate leaders in committing to source sustainable palm oil.
By the end of 2015, the supermarket chain will get palm oil solely from suppliers certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The company says it will track progress in its annual sustainability report, and advocate for public policy that prevents palm oil expansion in rainforests and peat lands.
Palm oil is the world’s leading oil crop, accounting for roughly a third of the global vegetable oil production. It’s used in thousands of everyday products such as cooking oil, shortening, margarine, as a milk fat replacer, and as a cocoa butter substitute.
Palm oils have been under attack for years because industrial growers are decimating primary rainforests in Indonesia to plant palm plantations.
"For the products we self-manufacture, we are proud to already source exclusively from suppliers who are RSPO members, working toward certification," says Calvin Kaufman, Kroger’s group vice president of manufacturing. "Our plants are modeling the way for our third-party suppliers."
Kroger is also a leader on energy efficiency.
Other companies that have committed to sustainable palm oil include Starbucks, Unilever, McDonald’s, SC Johnson, Avon, Kellogg, Nestle, Procter &Gamble, General Mills, Walmart and Co-Operative Group, the owner of the U.K.’s fifth-largest supermarket chain.
Solazyme announced a deal which will substitute algae oil for palm oil.
ALEC’s tentacles have reached palm oils as it tries to convince the US Environmental Protection Agency to include it as an approved fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
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Although what Kroger is doing is admirable, it’s a bit naive. RSPO membership and certification means very little. It’s primarily a greenwashing organization that does not stop its “members” from continuing the rainforest destruction and death of the critically endangered species who inhabit it. The RSPO is a joke at this point.
The RSPO, which includes some 400 members who are palm growers, oil processors, traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, investors and social and environmental NGOs, voted to adopt a new RSPO standard that still fails to address the climate impacts of palm oil productions. This vote by the RSPO members to support a new RSPO standard that certifies deforestation and excessive greenhouse gas emissions as ‘sustainable palm oil’ is a step in a wrong direction for the credibility of the RSPO.
The new RSPO standard is not a standard that can be trusted to produce Responsible Palm Oil. What’s needed now is for the companies that produce, trade and use palm oil in their products to go beyond the RSPO and commit to producing and sourcing palm oil that is truly RESPONSIBLE.