The WWF Palm Oil Buyers' Scorecard surveyed 47 companies, all household brands in Malaysia and Singapore, asking how far along the path they were to sourcing 100-percent certified sustainable palm oil. Only 16 disclosed any information.
“We were disappointed at the number of non responses,” said Denise Westerhout, the lead for WWF Malaysia’s sustainable markets programme, “because it doesn’t enable us to gauge how well the market is moving along and how much help it needs in raising awareness and understanding what we need to do.”
Two companies emerged as regional leaders in the scorecard, providing, according to WWF, “a clear indication that sourcing sustainable palm oil is possible.” Out of a total of 12 points, Denis Asia Pacific and Wildlife Reserves Singapore Group (WRS) scored 10 and nine respectively. Both have committed to sourcing 100-percent certified sustainable palm oil by 2018 and 2022 respectively.
The aim behind WRS’ decision to focus on palm oil sourcing was “guaranteeing the protection of habitat for wildlife threatened by unsustainable palm oil production,” said Sonja Luz, director of conservation, research and veterinary at WRS.
