Eco-friendly Palm oil, a new mantra for sustainability

NEW DELHI,MUMBAI: Indian consumer goods and edible oil companies are rapidly switching to eco-friendly palm oil to create sustainable supply chains that would encourage higher production without damaging the ecology in Malaysia and Indonesia.

In 2012, more than 20 companies including Godrej Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Adani Wilmar, and Ruchi Soya, committed to buying palm oil originating from plantations certified as sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an industry body created for the voluntary certification of palm oil.

“We need a larger participation of India and China, the two largest consumers and importers of palm oil, to spur demand for ecofriendly palm oil,” said Darrel Webber, secretary general, RSPO. India buys more than 20% of the palm oil traded globally, followed by China which buys 16%.

“Multinationals with Indian footprints like Hindustan Unilever, Wal-Mart and Cargill have played a critical role by leading this transformation to sustainable palm oil as well as inspiring and influencing their Indian counterparts. In the domestic market, early members like Godrej Industries, Adani Wilmer and VVF are playing a significant role in pioneering this wave of change,” he added.

For Hindustan Unilever, the commitment to source sustainable palm oil is led by parent company Unilever’s determination to create sustainable supply chains. Unilever, the world’s largest buyer of palm oil, had set a target of 100% certified sustainable palm oil covered by Green Palm Certificates. It is a goal the company reached in 2012, three years ahead of schedule, Unilever announced recently.

Unilever says it has now set a new target of purchasing palm oil from traceable sources by 2020. This means it will be able to track all the certified oil it buys back to the plantation on which it was originally grown. With oil palm plantations of its own in India, the Godrej Group is equally committed to importing eco-friendly palm oil.