SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL REVOLUTION

Sustainable Business Magazine talks to Cameron Plese, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s Head of North America. He tells us all about why the organization exists and what it’s doing to push forward global standards on sustainable palm oil production.

Palm oil has received a lot of bad press. That’s largely due to the industry being associated with large scale deforestation and land conflict with local and indigenous communities. However, palm oil is also a widely used and integral ingredient for a diverse range of products across the globe. That’s why the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was set up. It is a global non-profit that’s seeking to instil confidence back into the palm oil sector through a rigorous and universally recognized certification system.

Cameron Plese is RSPO’s Head of North America, which is the organization’s fastest growing region. He tells Sustainable Business Magazine about the standards that undergird its activity:

“We are an international membership-based sustainability organization. Our goal is to unite all of the seven sectors in the palm oil industry: from palm oil producers to processers and traders, from manufacturers to retailers, banks and investors, environmental NGOs and social NGOs. We want to bring them all together so that they can join their voices to deal with this major global issue.”

RSPO was formed in 2004 in response to the pressing need to address global deforestation and human rights issues in the palm oil industry.

“We knew we needed to be industry-specific and bring all these seven sectors together to address what is really at the heart of the issues. We had to ensure that everyone can build a common language, create common goals, and set higher standards.”

Securing The Supply Chain

Making the production of palm oil sustainable is at the centre of reforming the industry. As a result, RSPO has a certification standard dedicated to the growers in the supply chain, including one for smallholders (small-scale farmers on less than 50 hectares). Then there is another certification system for the rest of the supply chain. Mr. Plese explains more about why these three are so important:

“The RSPO Principles and Criteria are a 164-point criteria for growers. This is revised every five years to ensure that we remain relevant, helping us continue to improve and push growers to be the best they can be. That’s really important because this sector has been around for a very long time, but as many people are very aware, there has been a long history of unethical and unsustainable agricultural and labour practices. By building a common language, we can lift standards higher and foster a higher level of trust within the industry.

“The RSPO Independent Smallholder Standard was developed to take into consideration the diverse challenges of smallholders. It provides a step-wise approach for smallholders to get certified to produce sustainable palm oil and achieve a sustainable livelihood.

We also have a Supply Chain Certification standard for downstream actors in the supply chain, such as manufacturers, retailers and even food services in the hospitality sector. This is to make sure that companies purchasing palm oil products can feel confident that claims made about Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) can actually be verified throughout the whole supply chain. And this standard is ultimately in place to make sure the end consumer feels confident as well.

“So we’ve got standards for the growers to comply to sustainable agricultural practices, and a separate certification in place to make sure there is trust and verification for everybody making that claim throughout the whole supply chain. In this way, we aim to build a network of trust for everybody.”

Rapid Growth

North America represents the RSPO’s fastest growing region in terms of CSPO uptake. However,the region with the highest uptake of certified sustainable palm oil is Europe. Palm oil is a much newer product to the North American market and one where the supply chain has rapidly cottoned onto the importance of making it sustainable.

“Importers only started bringing palm oil into North America in the early 2000s, but it has skyrocketed since then,” Mr. Please says. “It’s the newest market to have palm oil at a large scale, and very new to conversations about palm oil sustainability. We’re seeing that grow quickly. In 2017, the region had only 350 RSPO members.

“Fortunately, because it’s a region that’s newer to production, it’s been able to start its journey with RSPO standards already in place. It only began about 15 years ago, when growers in Colombia were the first to get their certification.”

Today, we’ve passed 750. We’ve more than doubled in just five years and makeup 13% of the global RSPO membership. We’re at the point where 82% of all palm oil coming into North America is covered through one of our four RSPO supply chains. That’s an increase from 57% in 2019. That’s really exciting growth.”

Mr. Plese goes on to elaborate his role in this process:

“My role is to work with these 750 members, help them set sourcing policies and commitments in alignment with the RSPO Standards, challenge them to set very aggressive targets, and then work with them in following through on those commitments. We want to make sure everybody is coming along in action together, so that we can continue pushing this region further and faster.”

Conference Of The Leaders

With this in mind, Mr. Plese was keen to talk about the recent RSPO Inter-America Conference:

“In palm oil, conversations often focus around South East Asia, and rightfully so. That is where 85% of palm oil is grown and produced, and it’s also an area of very large consumption. However, Latin America is increasingly becoming more important for the global sustainability conversations. Latin America is now an up and coming region for palm oil production.

“Fortunately, because it’s a region that’s newer to production, it’s been able to start its journey with RSPO standards already in place. It only began about 15 years ago, when growers in Colombia were the first to get their certification. Currently, 35% of all palm oil produced in Latin America is

ROUNDTABLE FOR SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL (RSPO)

“We really don’t have much time with all of these issues. We need to have a lot of urgency to solve them. The only way we can do that is by convening everybody together as much as we can.”

RSPO Certified. That’s much higher than any other region in the world. Today there are 37 certified growers in eight counties across Latin America. They are now the leaders in terms of how much of their overall growth is certified sustainable. Meanwhile, North America is quickly going from being new in the palm oil to becoming a leader in sustainable sourcing as well.

“The theme of the conference was moving from emerging markets to market leaders. We are very clearly leaders in sustainable palm oil and we need to step into this role aggressively to figure out what can we do with this success. We want to spread the lessons that we’ve learned to other regions, so that those regions can grow even faster in their success with sustainable palm oil. Celebrating, but pushing the urgency to do more and do it faster.”

The conference ended with a call to action for Latin America to grow from 35% to 50% of certified palm oil production by 2028 and North America to increase from 87% to 100% certified sustainable palm oil uptake by 2028.

“Both regions will find it increasingly important to achieve higher levels of sustainability as government regulations contribute to more sustainable markets. The European Union recently adopted the deforestation-free regulation which covers seven commodities, including palm oil, and the UK has their own legislation as well. Following in Europe’s footsteps, several states in the US, and on a federal level, the Forest Act, is under discussion and will forbid entry into the U.S. any products that are linked to deforestation.

“As the RSPO members are being called to demonstrate higher levels of sustainability, NDPE compliance (No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation), greater accountability, and enhanced traceability, we are convening our members to discuss how to conduct proper due diligence while also continuing to push further for sustainability through the adoption and implementation of the RSPO Standards. We want to continue being leaders in sustainable palm oil and share lessons learned with other regions to grow our global impact.”