Two years after Starbucks stated publicly that it was committed to using 100% RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certified sustainable palm oil in products such as its raspberry chocolate chip scone and Mallorca sweet bread by 2015, customers are in the dark. Has or hasn’t the coffee giant eliminated conflict palm oil from its supply chain?
Starbucks’ public commitment, made in 2013, followed a shareholder resolution requesting the board of directors adopt and implement a comprehensive sustainable palm oil policy.
Yet there has been no direct reporting of its progress – if any – and no information available on the RSPO website. There is therefore no way for the public to know if Starbucks is on track.
In response, SumOfUs, a global community of consumers, investors and individuals working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions, has launched a campaign to get Starbucks to eliminate conflict palm oil from its supply chain.
SumOfUS believes responsible behaviour is increasingly something people want to see from their well-loved brands, giving consumers the power to drive change in the palm oil supply chain. In the last year alone, hundreds of thousands of consumers have put fast food brands such as McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King and PepsiCo under pressure to ditch conflict palm oil through petitions, call-ins, stunts and tweets.
McDonald’s has since publicly committed to implement its promise to be deforestation-free in its supply chains and to a plan for monitoring and evaluation. Starbucks’ statement, on the other hand, which was only updated since the launch of our campaign, has no deadline for going deforestation-free, no plans for monitoring and evaluation, and doesn’t go beyond the company-owned stores.
Of course, consumer movements don’t operate in a vacuum. There are many organisations working on the ground and behind the scenes to end conflict palm oil, including Rainforest Action Network, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace and Forest Heroes. But recent developments have proved that helping consumers to take meaningful, collective action works and can provide the tipping point for many companies that would otherwise delay.
What about non-consumer facing brands? Can consumers also drive changes in their supply chains? Evidence would suggest yes. Just this May, Indonesian palm oil producer Astra Agro Lestari was targeted through its sister company, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel group. After activists staged stunts outside Mandarin Oriental Hotels in London and New York and people took to the hotel chain’s Facebook page to voice their disapproval, it was only a matter of days before Astra issued a statement announcing an immediate moratorium on deforestation.
Unlike Astra, Starbucks prominently positions itself as a socially conscious company. What’s arguably most remarkable about the coffee company’s lack of progress on palm oil, therefore, is that it’s in stark contrast with the company’s work on coffee. Earlier this year, Starbucks announced that 99% of its coffee is now ethically sourced, which it accomplished by developing the Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices, a third-party verified programme for farmers to ensure certain human rights and environmental standards are met.
Unfortunately, even if Starbucks sources 100% RSPO-certified oil, this doesn’t automatically mean it will achieve the gold standard. After all, the RSPO can’t guarantee that the palm oil it certifies is deforestation-free. In June this year a coalition of companies, investors and NGOs including PepsiCo, Walmart and Starbucks itself signed a letter urging the certification body to enforce stricter standards. One paragraph stated: “Given current shortcomings of RSPO certification … purchasing RSPO certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) does not sufficiently address critical sustainability concerns in the palm oil supply chain.”
Other companies including Yum! Brands (owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut), Dunkin’ Donuts, Kellogg’s and Krispy Kreme have made deforestation-free palm oil commitments. As with Starbucks, however, campaigners and consumers need to see fundamental change on the ground – no deforestation, no peat and no exploitation – before we can declare victory.