Unilever vs. Greenpeace: Palm oil and the Borneo Forests

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Protests by Greenpeace at a Unilever factory in Port Sunlight, near Liverpool (left) and dressed as orang utans outside the companies headquarters at Blackfriars, London (middle and right)

On Monday 21 April, Greenpeace protesters, many wearing ‘orang-utan’ outfits, descended on Unilever to protest about the use of palm oil in its products. They entered Port Sunlight in Liverpool, UK, at about 6.30am and chained themselves to machinery, stopping production on some product lines.

In London, a mobile advertising hoarding was placed on a traffic island in front of the corporate headquarters and protesters were ‘aping’ around on a seven metre high balcony above the entrance to the building.

Meanwhile in Rotterdam, abseilers unfurled a large banner on the glass frontage of Unilever’s building overlooking the river.

That was a Unilever communication regarding the recent Green Peace Protests against Unilever. When reading the full story though, it wasn’t only the Palm Oil that Greenpeace were protesting over, it was also the fact that the production of Unilever’s products contributes to the destruction of the orangutan’s last forest habitat in Borneo.

What irks me is that Unilever’s communication doesn’t tie the orangutan outfits the Greenpeace activists were wearing with the fact that they were trying to make a point about the orangutan’s habitat. The communication just makes it seem like the Green Peace activists are a bunch of monkeys.

Greenpeace’s report, Burning up Borneo, says that Unilever uses 1.3 million tons of palm oil or derivative products a year, some three per cent of global production. It says the company gets half of this from Indonesia, now the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet because of deforestation.

The report says there is currently a massive expansion into Kalimantan’s peatland forest areas by Unilever’s suppliers and accuses the company of derailing international efforts to tackle climate change. - The Telegraph

From Unilever’s perspective, they assert that Unilever does chair the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm oil and that “the real problem is that demand for palm oil has exploded in recent years as demand from India and China has increased. Another major factor is the use of palm oil as a feedstock in the production of biofuels.”

Gavin Neath (SVP of Unilever Global Communications) says: “Unilever has a long history of promoting sustainability, for example in fish and tea. But in both cases, we only made the commitments when we had done sufficient work to ensure that we could keep our promises and maintain the security of our supply chain. This is the responsible and sustainable approach.”

Protesters on the roof a Unilever factory in Port Sunlight and an orang-utan talks to a passing motorcyclist

What needs to be highlighted here is that we should, like Green Peace is doing, hold corporations accountable for their practices. Especially since the main aim of corporations is to turn a profit and increase shareholder value, we need to make sure that this motive doesn’t overshadow the corporation’s environmental and social responsibilities. Equally, we need to give credit where credit is due and Unilever is one of the most socially responsible Corporations there is. Let’s hope their focus on Sustainable Palm Oil will render some fruitful results for everyone… including the Orangutans.
UPDATE: Unilever Increases Focus on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Technorati Tags: Unilever, Green Peace, Environment, Activism, Protest, Borneo, Orangutan, Rainforests, Palm oil

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