Fighting deforestation

Fighting climate change also involves the conservation of forests and other terrestrial ecosystems of high conservation value (HCV), which are considered to be of outstanding significance given their capacity to sequester carbon from the atmosphere and the biodiversity they harbour in their ecosystems. Indeed, the expansion of agricultural areas – as a result of changes in land use – and the associated deforestation are the second major source of human greenhouse gas emissions and a threat to the conservation of biodiversity.

It is for this reason that we have made ambitious commitments to ensure the responsible use of the main commodities linked to deforestation in our Private Brands and perishable products and packaging containing palm oil, timber, soy and beef. To this end, we work with The Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition of Action (FP CoA) in four areas of action:

• integrate environmental and social sustainability criteria¹ in Private Brand and perishable products, ensuring that, by 2025, these ingredients are not associated with deforestation or the conversion of HCV ecosystems;
• encourage the main traders of these commodities and the suppliers of Private Brand and perishables to make a commitment to fighting deforestation;
• promote, through multi-stakeholder initiatives, the conservation of ecosystems in the major areas where these ingredients are produced;
• define and publicly disclose specific progress indicators².

To monitor our progress and identify opportunities for improvement, we map the presence of ingredients linked to deforestation in our Private Brand products and perishables, collecting information on their origin and sustainability certification from suppliers, as well as their respective policies for fighting deforestation.

Main agricultural commodities with deforestation risk in Private Brand and perishables

¹ These criteria include support for activities that do not contribute to deforestation or the loss of high conservation value ecosystems and/or contribute to their regeneration, as well as the efforts to eliminate human, child and/or workers’ rights violations.

² The strategy that shapes our action is publicly disclosed and our progress updated as part of our participation in the CDP Forests programme, and is available at www.cdp.net and also on our corporate website, on the Fighting Deforestation page.