User:Emmascaum/GreenPalm

GreenPalm is a certificate trading programme designed to enable buyers of palm oil to support sustainable palm oil production by paying a premium to palm oil producers who work within the rules of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

The programme is essentially an off-setting scheme – manufacturers and retailers can off-set the volume of palm oil they buy or use, by paying for an equivalent amount of palm oil that has been produced using sustainable, ethical methods.

Those businesses using GreenPalm certificates can then make claims to be supporting sustainable palm oil production. This can benefit those manufacturers and retailers – of food, cosmetics, personal care products – that want to show consumers they are trading ethically and responsibly, by putting a logo on product packaging or advertising their GreenPalm involvement. GreenPalm membership is also being used by businesses in their corporate social responsibility statements.

History
GreenPalm was established in 2006 by oils manufacturer AarhusKarlshamn UK Ltd (AAK), itself the UK’s largest palm oil importer and a founder member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). GreenPalm is a trading name of Book&Claim Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of AAK which promotes support for sustainably produced commodities by the payment of premiums via certificate trading.

GreenPalm is the only sustainable palm oil certificate trading system endorsed by the RSPO and is the RSPO’s official broker for the trade in such certificates.

The first GreenPalm certificates were traded in September 2008. In July 2010, GreenPalm’s website stated the programme was on target to trade its millionth certificate by September 2010, earning sustainable producers $9m in premiums.

The palm oil issue
Palm oil, obtained from the fruit of the oil palm, is a versatile ingredient used in about 50 per cent of all consumer goods, from bread, pastry, cakes and confectionery to cosmetics, soap and biofuels. It has gained global popularity because it is relatively cheap to produce – the oil palm grows quickly and is very high-yielding, requiring far less land than to grow a comparable crop for the equivalent amount of oil.

According to the World Growth organisation, palm oil is potentially the world’s most sustainable and environmentally-friendly food crop, a source of income for some of the poorest nations and a food source to meet the needs of rapid population growth. World Growth calls palm oil a “development tool”.

However, palm oil’s commercial popularity and profitability has driven vast expansion of plantations in tropical countries, especially Malaysia and Indonesia, and, as described on the Rainforest Action Network’s website, the industry has been linked with rainforest destruction, threatened extinctions of animals such as the orang-utan, huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions, and human rights and labour violations.

Sustainable palm oil
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 to address concerns over the palm oil industry. Comprising palm oil producers, buyers and organisations such as WWF and the Malaysia Palm Oil Association, the RSPO set out principles and criteria for the sustainable and responsible production of palm oil, and established an auditing and certification system for oil palm plantations and mills.

The first consignment of RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil was imported to Europe by oil processor AAK UK, in Hull, UK, in November 2008.

Manufacturers wanting to use certified sustainable palm oil must first become audited and accepted as members of the RSPO. All members of the supply chain must also join the RSPO, as the palm oil must be kept segregated at every stage.

In addition, most food manufacturers use complex blends or derivatives of palm oil that are not yet available in a sustainable form.

GreenPalm was devised to work alongside existing supply chains by paying a premium to sustainable producers direct, instead of buying physical sustainable palm oil.

For a manufacturer that uses ingredients that have come from many different sources, and which may all contain palm oil, calculating their product's total use of palm oil and then buying GreenPalm certificates to cover that use is far more feasible and affordable than sourcing ingredients that contain only sustainable material.

Aims
GreenPalm’s published aims are to promote certified sustainable palm oil, prevent destruction of the rainforests and support the work of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The RSPO receives $1 from each certificate sold, payable by the buyer in addition to the payment to the seller and brokerage fees.

Mechanics of the programme
A palm oil producer using sustainable methods is audited by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Once certified, the producer can register a proportion of palm oil output with GreenPalm and receives one GreenPalm certificate for each metric tonne of palm oil that has been certified as produced sustainably. These certificates are then offered for sale online via GreenPalm’s web-based trading platform.

Businesses that use palm oil or sell products containing palm oil can bid for and buy the certificates. In doing so, they pay a premium direct to the producer.

GreenPalm claims to support sustainable production at source, without depending on the purchase of actual segregated material. Trade in sustainable palm oil depends on exports to markets with an interest in ethical sourcing, but many palm oil producers are smallholders whose product is consumed locally. In one of the biggest palm oil producing countries, Indonesia, almost half the seven million hectares of palm oil plantations are owned by smallholders. GreenPalm gives these individuals an incentive to work sustainably, earning a premium in the process, and potentially to lift themselves out of poverty.

Commercial supporters
In the UK in 2010, the BBC polled many of the country's biggest names in retailing and manufacturing to ask about their palm oil sourcing policies, with many replying that they were buying or planning to buy GreenPalm certificates.

Several major manufacturers and retailers are using GreenPalm certificates to show their support for sustainable palm oil production while they change their supply chains and recipes over to physical sustainable palm oil. One of these is Marks and Spencer, which stated in 2010 that it would use entirely sustainable palm oil by 2015 and cover its use until then with GreenPalm certificates. Unilever made a similar announcement in 2010 and is the biggest single buyer of GreenPalm certificates.

Criticisms

 * Critics of GreenPalm say the programme is faulted because buying GreenPalm certificates does not guarantee the palm oil being bought or used is not mixed with oil from unsustainable sources. Accusations of “greenwashing” have been made against some buyers of GreenPalm certificates for their claims that their products contain sustainable palm oil.


 * An article in The Guardian’s Greenwash column claimed some retailers were avoiding GreenPalm for the reason that consumers could not be guaranteed that the palm oil in a product had come from sustainable sources.


 * RSPO rules state that anyone buying GreenPalm certificates must not claim their products contain certified sustainable material, but only that their purchase of GreenPalm is supporting sustainable production. This can cause confusion and deter some businesses from taking part in the programme.


 * Greenpeace UK has questioned the worth of the RSPO, and, by association, its certification systems, and suggests sustainable palm oil can be an “illusion”. Greenpeace’s website says: “Many RSPO members are taking no steps to avoid the worst practices associated with the industry, such as large-scale forest clearance and taking land from local people without their consent. On top of this, the RSPO actually risks creating the illusion of sustainable palm oil, justifying the expansion of the palm oil industry. Our investigations – detailed in our report Cooking The Climate – found evidence that RSPO members are still relying on palm oil suppliers who destroy rainforests and convert peatlands for their plantations. One member – Duta Palma, an Indonesian palm oil refiner – has rights to establish plantations on land which theoretically is protected by law.”