Rainforest Action Network Responds to PepsiCo’s Release of Palm Oil Action Plan Progress Report

Calls it “masterful window dressing” while workers continue to suffer and forests continue to fall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Emma Rae Lierley, Emma@ran.org, 425.281.1989

San Francisco, CA – Rainforest Action Network (RAN) responds to PepsiCo’s release of a “Palm Oil Action Plan Progress Report” today, in which the food and beverage giant outlines the actions it is supposedly taking to address its use of Conflict Palm Oil in PepsiCo products.

A report released by Rainforest Action Network (RAN) in April 2017, titled “Profits over People and the Planet, Not ‘Performance with Purpose’; Exposing PepsiCo’s Real Agenda,” revealed PepsiCo’s connections to Conflict Palm Oil suppliers, which are driving deforestation, climate emissions, and human and labor rights abuses across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Latin America. Today’s release by PepsiCo lacks a meaningful response to the issues raised in RAN’s report.

Robin Averbeck, Senior Campaigner of Rainforest Action Network (RAN), responded by issuing the following statement,

“Pepsico’s latest “Palm Oil Action Plan Progress Report” is a masterful attempt to window dress its lack of progress in addressing the systemic environmental and human rights violations in its palm oil supply chain and in the operations of its joint venture partner Indofood. In the real world, forests continue to fall and workers continue to be exploited for the production of palm oil used in PepsiCo’s products.

“While PepsiCo openly acknowledges in its report that deforestation and labor rights violations are rampant in the palm oil industry, the company has once again failed to set a deadline to end these abuses in its own supply chains. Instead, PepsiCo hides behind false claims of sustainability made by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)––the same certification system that has continued to certify its controversial partner Indofood, despite its ongoing exploitation of workers exposed by RAN, Indonesian labor rights organization OPPUK, and International Labor Rights Forum in June 2016.

“PepsiCo needs to stop the corporate greenwash and start enforcing an end to rainforest destruction and the violation of workers and communities’ rights in its supply chain and the plantations controlled by its partner Indofood. Until it does so, PepsiCo and its financial backers will be exposed to campaigns that demand real outcomes on the ground.”

RAN continues to call on PepsiCo to substantially invest its profits into ending the use of Conflict Palm Oil used in PepsiCo products sold worldwide; require its joint venture partner Indofood to put the rights of workers first by aligning its policies and practices with the Free and Fair Labor Principles, or cancel deals with Indofood; advance respect for human rights by requiring all suppliers to uphold the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights immediately, and provide remedy for stolen lands and livelihoods starting with REPSA and Indofood; enforce an immediate moratorium on the destruction of forests and peatlands for palm oil; and play a positive role in securing land rights, improving livelihoods, and protecting forests and peatlands, including the critical Leuser Ecosystem.

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