Sustainable sourcing

Palm oil (PO) and palm kernel oil (PKO) are both priority ingredients. In 2016 we brought forward our target for purchasing 100% physically certified palm oil and its derivatives for our core volumes from 2020 to 2019. At that time, we envisaged that we would achieve 100% sustainable PKO much later due to difficulties in finding enough physically certified supply.

In 2019 we reached 95%^* physically certified supply, from RSPO Mass Balance, RSPO Segregated or an equivalent standard that is independently verified by a third party. We are pleased with this result as we’ve sourced enough PKO to cover our needs far earlier than we expected.

We did not reach the 100% target according to our own Basis of Preparation (PDF | 6MB), partly because we faced a bottleneck in supply of RSPO-certified materials in Africa.

However, by investing in smallholders’ certification and purchasing independent smallholder certificates for the remainder of our core volumes, we did achieve 99.6% sustainably sourced for 2019 for all of our volumes.

We believe this is a credible method of sustainable sourcing given the importance of supporting smallholders and the fact that these credits are directly associated with specific smallholders and smallholder groups. We bought the equivalent of 4.5% of our volumes in RSPO independent smallholder certificates, which was the maximum amount of these types of credits available in the market.

Paper and board are priority raw materials and we reached 97% sustainably sourced in 2019.

Of this, 90% was received with a third-party certification claim and full chain of custody to demonstrate that it came from sustainably managed forests or recycled material.

There are challenges for our suppliers in providing verifiable evidence to support the make-up of uncertified products in our recycled material. So in 2016 we set out to accelerate the volume of certified recycled products we buy by 2019, and to source the recycled fibre from suppliers with third-party certification. In 2019, 7.5% of our total volume still came from recycled sources without chain of custody, so we’re working with suppliers to get these volumes certified with chain of custody.

To make our supply chain more transparent, in July 2019, we published details of direct suppliers (PDF | 173KB) accounting for over 99.5% of the wood fibre-based materials purchased in 2018 under our Sustainable Paper & Board Packaging Policy.

Soy is one of our priority crops. We achieved our target to source 100% of our soy beans sustainably by 2014 (through the physical purchase of RTRS certified beans).

In 2019, we increased soy oil from sustainable sources to 80%, thanks to new suppliers in Latin America and volume increases from our programme in North America. Our total comprises 24% physical certified oil and 56% in the form of credits and includes Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) certified soy oil, self-verified soy oil in the US and RTRS certificates.

We believe transparency helps us to build a more sustainable supply chain. In July 2019, we published details of our direct suppliers accounting for more than 99.9% of our soy oil purchases in 2018. As we buy most of our soy from the Americas, we continue to work with farmers there to improve their agricultural practices and boost sustainable production.

Tea is one of our priority crops and in 2007 we were the first major tea company to commit to sustainably sourcing tea on a large scale. In 2015, we met our target for 100% of the tea in Lipton’s tea bag blends to come from sustainable sources.

We continued our progress in 2019, increasing the proportion of all our tea from certified sustainable sources to 90% (up from 84% in 2018). In India, sources of sustainable tea increased and we were able to up the proportion of tea we buy that was trustea Verified.

We’re working hard to bring the tea industry into the 21st century by taking action to improve people’s health, particularly through protecting women’s safety and promoting better diets, to improve their livelihoods and to nurture the land through sustainable agricultural practices. And to support our belief that transparency helps us build a better supply chain, in 2019 we published a list of our global tea suppliers.

Fruit and vegetables are a complex portfolio of materials with a very large and diverse supply base, making it difficult to achieve our 100% target across the entire portfolio by 2015.

Vegetables are one of our priority crops, increasing to 98% sustainably sourced for our top 13 in 2019.

Following an in-depth review of our strategy to optimise our approach to sustainable sourcing over 2016−2017, we’re focusing on a set of key crops which are important to our brands and where, due to our scale and influence, we can drive greater positive impact within these agricultural sectors. There are a small number of crops that we purchase in low volumes and where we alone are unable to significantly impact the market. Fruit is one of these crops and in line with our strategy, sustainably sourced volumes decreased to 41% in 2019.

Cocoa is one of our priority crops and it’s essential to Magnum, our biggest ice cream brand which is on sale in 52 countries. We’re now able to source Rainforest Alliance Certified™ cocoa for all but two of these countries.

We reached over 99% sustainably sourced cocoa for Magnum in 2019, but our challenge remains in purchasing Rainforest Alliance Certified™ cocoa in Venezuela and Israel where the availability of certified beans remains extremely limited.

We also stepped up our efforts to source all our cocoa sustainably, reaching 89%, up from 82% in 2018.

We joined The Cocoa & Forests Initiative in 2018, signing its statement of intent to collaborate pre-competitively to help end deforestation and forest degradation in the cocoa supply chain. We’ve been mapping our direct cocoa supply chain to improve traceability and in March 2020 published a full list of our Tier 1 and 2 direct cocoa suppliers on our website.

Sugar is one of our priority crops. We verify sugar beet primarily against our Sustainable Agriculture Code (SAC) and mainly use Bonsucro certification for sugar cane.

In 2019, 69% of our sugar supplies were sustainably sourced. While this figure was the same as in 2018, in 2019 we increased the proportion of self-assessed and physical, certified sugar from 42% to 46%. (This covers both sugar beet and sugar cane). We achieved the rest of our sugar requirements with Bonsucro credits (23%), reducing our use of them slightly during the year.

Our long-term goal is to help create a global supply of sustainable sugar. We believe the best way to achieve this is to harmonise the sustainable sourcing codes of the food and drink industries and forge them into a single standard, which can have an impact at scale. That’s why we have helped develop the Farm Sustainability Assessment through the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform, which has been agreed by many businesses and gives farmers a single, simplified sustainability framework to work to.

In 2016 we began an in-depth review of our strategy to optimise our approach to sustainable sourcing. As a result, we’re focusing on a set of key crops which are important to our brands and where, due to our scale and influence, we can drive greater positive impact within these agricultural sectors.

Sunflower oil is one of a small number of crops that we purchase in very low volumes and where we alone are unable to significantly impact the market. In line with this strategy, we will not reach our target.

Nevertheless, we continue to work with our suppliers to find industry-wide solutions to boost supplies of sustainable sunflower oil. In 2019, 24% of our volumes were sustainably sourced.

Rapeseed oil is one of our priority crops. In 2019, 92% of our volumes were sustainably sourced, marking a significant increase from the previous year. This was driven by the efforts of one of our key suppliers.

We continue to work with our suppliers and other partners, including on a joint approach with our partner Bunge in Canada, where around 200 farmers are signed up to our Sustainable Agriculture Code programme.

Dairy produce is one of our priority ingredients, and while we increased our sustainable supply to 78% in 2019, we will not reach 100% by 2020. This is because in some countries, for example Russia and Pakistan, sustainable dairy practices are not yet sufficiently widespread to produce a reliable supply. Similarly, the variety of dairy products we buy come from many suppliers, making it difficult to achieve a sustainable supply at scale.

We’re continuing to work with the Dairy Sustainability Framework (DSF), which is looking at sustainability from a regional perspective, a first for the dairy industry. In 2019 the Sustainable Dairy Partnership was launched: a 'business-to-business' sustainability model built on the DSF Framework. The Partnership also requires all milk processors to address the prevention of deforestation, the protection of animal welfare and human rights, and compliance with local legislation.

Ben & Jerry’s ice creams were the first to use Fairtrade (FT) ingredients in 2005. By the end of 2011 in Europe, we achieved Fairtrade certification for all our products produced and distributed in Europe.

In 2012, due to issues around quality and availability, we found we could not source all the FT-certified ingredients we needed for a global conversion. So we revised our target from our previous ‘all ingredients’ to ‘all flavours’ certified.

We identified that by using FT ingredients for the five major commodities in all our base mixes and for our chunks and swirls, and following proper Fairtrade derogation procedures, all our ice cream flavours would qualify for Fairtrade certification by 2013. We reached 77% in 2013.

In 2013 we also decided to source only non-GMO ingredients by seed source. As this added complexity to our conversion programmes, we delayed our plans, achieving FT-certification for all our flavours in 2014.

Our research shows that consumers prefer products made with cage-free eggs. However, the conditions in which eggs are produced vary widely around the world. We take animal welfare seriously as a social and ethical concern and were one of the first global companies to work with suppliers to start sourcing cage-free eggs.

Since 2009, Hellmann’s, Amora and Calvé have been 100% cage-free in Western Europe. By 2014, we had converted our supply chain in Eastern Europe too so that all our European products could use cage-free eggs.

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has used only cage-free eggs in Europe since 2004; by the end of 2011, 99% of all eggs used in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream mix worldwide were also cage-free.

In 2018 we announced our commitment to convert all our egg supplies to cage-free by 2025: overall in 2019, 65% of our global supply was cage-free.

Our commitment covers office paper products such as printer paper, note books and envelopes. By using paper from sustainable or recycled sources, we avoid using wood from non-sustainable sources, helping our aim to end deforestation.

We achieved our target in 2013, when 100% of our paper-based office materials for our top 21 countries came from either certified, sustainable forests or recycled sources. All our suppliers sign a certificate of compliance, and we monitor compliance via quarterly reporting. Where necessary, we have changed from non-sustainable products to sustainable products.

We then extended our ambition from the top 21 countries to all other countries in Europe and Latin America, with the aim of reaching 100% compliance by the end of 2015, which we achieved.

While we no longer report on this target as we achieved it in 2013, we continue to drive greater use of sustainable paper across our business.