Deforestation-Free Supply Chain | New Commitment
Between 2016 and 2018, an area equivalent to 88% of the total UK land area was required to supply the UK’s demand for just seven agricultural and forest commodities – beef & leather, cocoa, palm oil, pulp & paper, rubber, soy, and timber. Furthermore, 28% of this overseas footprint is located in countries described as ‘very high’ or ‘high’ risk of deforestatio.
At Foodbuy, we have all of these commodities within our supply chain, so recognise our duty to procure them responsibly, given the impact that deforestation can have on biodiversity and carbon emissions as well as the 2 billion people globally that rely on forests for food, fibre and shelter.
Tackling deforestation will be essential for us in achieving Climate Net Zero by 2030, given that deforestation now accounts for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
In fact, if tropical deforestation were a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter globally.
After working with suppliers to understand our baseline over key commodities Compass UK&I are proud to announce that we are now committing to:
No deforestation for directly sourced deforestation linked commodities by 2025
These commodities for us are: beef, paper, timber, coffee and soya but we are continuing to work on where these products, amongst others (palm oil, maize, cocoa) are sourced indirectly or embedded.
We cannot achieve this without support from our suppliers, so stay close to the Foodbuy Net Zero Hub where we will continue to share resources to support your own deforestation strategies.
The Soy Story | Soy Foot-Printing Exercise
Our annual soya foot-printing exercise is now complete and our policy (attached below) has been updated to reflect the latest figures.
If you supply significant quantities of soya-based products or meat, poultry, dairy and fish products (where soya is commonly used as feed), we recommend you undertaking your own soya footprint assessment.
Consultants and facilitators of the UK Roundtable on Sustainable Soya, EFECA have created some helpful guides to get you started (attached below).
Palm Oil Misinformation | Our Position on Sustainable Palm Oil
We are deeply committed to the responsible procurement of palm oil and are working towards ensuring all products for our largest client containing the commodity as an ingredient use RSPO certified sustainable palm oil by the end of 2023.
We are committed to supporting palm oil farmers in transitioning to producing the product sustainably rather than boycotting the commodity altogether. If produced responsibly, palm oil can reduce the vulnerability of farmers in developing nations whilst simultaneously promoting biodiversity and mitigating against land degradation due to its space efficient nature.
See our Palm Oil Position Statement below to hear more about our take on this.
