OUR COMMITMENT
By 2020 we will source 100% of our agricultural raw materials sustainably: 10% by 2010; 30% by 2012; 50% by 2015; 100% by 2020.
OUR PERFORMANCE
60% of our agricultural raw materials were sustainably sourced by the end of 2015. This means we exceeded our interim milestone of 50% by 2015.
OUR PERSPECTIVE
Half our raw materials come from farms and forests. The decisions we make on who we source from, and how we work with them, can have profound implications on global resources and climate change. They also have a wider social impact on human development, affecting the livelihoods of many.
By sourcing sustainably, we can protect scarce resources. We can ensure deforestation, land use and social and community issues are managed responsibly. For our business, sustainable sourcing means we ensure security of supply and reduce market volatility.
We are first concentrating on our top ten agricultural raw materials. These account for around two thirds of our volumes. They include palm oil, paper and board, soy, sugar, tea, fruit and vegetables, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, dairy ingredients and cocoa.
By sharing information about where products come from, we are also meeting emerging consumer desires for more sustainable products. More of our brands are able to share their sustainability stories with our consumers: Fruttare is labelling its frozen fruit bars as sustainably sourced, Breyers has launched sustainably sourced vanilla for its ice cream, Magnum is using sustainable cocoa certified by Rainforest Alliance. Lipton is now sourcing 100% Rainforest Alliance certified tea for all its tea bags and Knorr is using more sustainably sourced vegetables and herbs.
In 2015 we had a slow-down in on-boarding our suppliers to our sustainable sourcing programme, so we are behind plan for our fruit and vegetable portfolio. These portfolios are highly complex and diverse: our challenge is to close all the gaps and include in our sustainable sourcing programme some complex materials which have few supply options. We anticipate reaching 100% sustainable sourcing for our fruit and vegetable portfolios by 2020.
We want to drive wider transformational change across industries and systems; working closely with others is essential to achieving this. We are determined to eliminate deforestation from supply chains – our own and those of others. Over 90% of globally traded palm oil is now covered by ‘no deforestation’ pledges. The challenge is to turn those promises into action, and that requires a transformational change in global systems.
