Global food giant Nestlé has become the latest member of The Forest Trust (TFT), the international organisation dedicated to improving forest management and combating deforestation.
The company’s executive vice-president José Lopez said that joining the TFT would help it “identify and address embedded social and environmental issues” in its supply chains.
The “partnership” with the organisation, he said, would start by looking at Nestlé’s palm oil procurement. The aim is that 100% of its consumption will be sourced from sustainable supplies by 2015. Currently the figure is just 18%, but that is set to rise to 50% in 2011.
The company says that together with the TFT it will also set “similarly ambitious targets” for its pulp and paper procurement.
“Nestlé will focus on the systematic identification and exclusion of companies owning or managing high risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation,” stated the company.
It added, however, that if suppliers did not currently meet its sustainability criteria, but undertook to do so, it would give them “technical support”.
Nestlé’s ultimate aim is “to ensure that its products have no deforestation footprint”.
