British cosmetics retailers lauded over palm oil checks by WWF

Published: 8-Dec-2011
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But certain continental European retailers come in for criticism

Conservation group WWF has lauded six major British cosmetics retailers for doing all they can to monitor their palm oil-based product sourcing, reducing its environmental impact.

Palm oil has long been a concern of environmentalists worried about clearances of natural habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia to make way for palm oil plantations. And the WWF has been pressing western manufacturers and retailers to ensure that if they use palm oil, it has not come from plantations that have replaced rainforest and other valuable biodiverse natural vegetation.

In its latest Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard, the WWF gives full marks to ASDA (Walmart); Boots; Marks & Spencer; The Body Shop; The Co-operative Group; and Waitrose.

“In the UK in particular we see progress,” said WWF palm oil expert Adam Harrison. “Due to several campaigns highlighting the damage caused by the rapid spread of palm plantations, companies see they are under pressure and respond.” No companies scored full marks in WWF’s last assessment, in 2009.

However, this year some other continental European retailers were criticised for refusing to offer information about their palm oil practices – namely Germany’s Aldi Nord and Lidl; Denmark’s Dansk Supermarked Group and SuperGros; plus Finland’s Tradeka. All these companies scored nil points in the WWF palm oil table.
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