Tag Archives: Stephenson

Breaking through the supply chain: How the manufacturers in the Palm Oil Innovation Group lead new approaches to palm oil sourcing

Download Palm Oil Innovations: Breaking through the supply chain.

POIG’s Retailer and Manufacturer Working Group (RMWG) was established in 2015 to provide a constructive space for responsible brands to inspire each other and to offer support and guidance on how to increase sourcing of traceable and responsible palm oil.

Originally guided by the general principles set out in the POIG Charter for Retailers and Manufacturers, the members felt that measurable and ambitious targets were critical if POIG wanted to see real change in uptake of responsible palm oil. The POIG Retailers and Manufacturers Charter indicators were launched in 2018, and set a very ambitious bar for retailer and manufacturer members to work towards a fully RSPO Segregated certified and POIG-verified supply chain and eliminate credits based sourcing.

Each RMWG member has developed a strong response and solutions to complex sourcing challenges. L’Oréal has co-founded an initiative to address the difficulties in sourcing certified derivatives; Despite its limited market power, UK soap manufacturer Stephenson has achieved 100% segregated CPO, PKO and fractions, including 7% POIG verified CPO; Danone has built a dedicated segregated supply chain in the US for CPO and PKO, and Ferrero has successfully converted its large volume of palm oil fractions to segregated sources globally as at end of 2019.

As at year-end 2019, POIG’s members had achieved an impressive 68% segregated, including 4% POIG verified palm oil products. 25% mass balance was primarily PKO, and in transition to segregated by year end 2020.