Nestlé has announced that it will stop using products that come from rainforest destruction. The move follows a two-month Greenpeace campaign that exposed Nestlé’s use of palm oil in products such as KitKat.
The expansion of palm oil and pulp plantations is driving the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands and pushing endangered orang-utans to the brink of extinction, according to Greenpeace.
“Since the beginning of our campaign, hundreds of thousands of people, including over 20,000 Australians, have contacted Nestlé to say that they will not buy products linked to rainforest destruction,” said Greenpeace’s head of campaigns, Stephen Campbell.
Under its new policy, Nestlé is committed to identifying and excluding companies from its supply chain that own or manage “high risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation”. This exclusion would apply to companies such as Sinar Mas, Indonesia’s pulp and paper supplier, as well as Cargill.
Palm oil is used in a range of products, from chocolate, toothpaste and cosmetics to so-called ‘climate friendly’ biofuels.