Pressure mounts on Procter & Gamble as Mars agrees to protect rainforests

Posted by Richardg — 10 March 2014 at 6:31pm - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: Ulet Ifansasti
Greenpeace activists expose deforestation at one of P&G's palm oil suppliers

Procter & Gamble still has its head in the sand about its dirty palm oil use - so this morning our campaigner paid a visit to one of its suppliers, Musim Mas, to show P&G just what it's buying.

A few weeks ago, the land you see here was forest. Now it's acres of cleared land that will soon be a palm oil plantation; the beautiful trees chopped down and sold to be sold to a nearby pulp mill. 

P&G says its palm oil is sustainable - so why is it buying from this company, Musim Mas?

The company told us that it was going to investigate - something it really should have done beforehand. Its negligence has made its customers - and let's face it, most of us have a bottle of Head & Shoulders or Pantene shampoo, Oral B toothpaste or Gillette shaving gel in our bathroom - complicit in this destruction.

But this isn't about one company. Musim Mas is just one of P&G's suppliers that is destroying the rainforest. That's why P&G needs a new policy - one of not buying from anyone involved in forest destruction - and it needs one right now.

Other companies have recognised this. This morning, Mars announced a strong new policy to protect forests. From the end of next year, it will only use clean palm oil from companies that are not trashing the rainforest - in Indonesia, or elsewhere. 

This is a great win for the movement demanding forest-friendly palm oil - and it leaves P&G increasingly isolated. If Mars, Unilever, L'Oreal, Nestle and others can do it - what's stopping Procter & Gamble?

Follow Greenpeace UK