Held on June 4 at London’s River Bank Plaza, the conference ‘100 % Certified Sustainable Palm Oil: Our shared Responsibility’ will also serve as the launch pad for a new dialogue with the supply chain, leading up to the entry into force of the new EU food labelling regulation in December this year, when palm and other vegetable oils will appear on product packs.
The cosmetic industry constitutes an important share of the palm oil market, especially of palm oil kernels, with approximately 70% of formulations containing some form of the ingredient.
The RSPO has always maintained that increasing communication and awareness is always a crucial part of its mission and hopes that the conference will address many of the topics at the heart of this debate around the shared responsibility of industry and other stakeholders.
Key issues under discussion include:
- Is the RSPO certification the best option we have today to source sustainable palm oil, protect the environment and support livelihoods?
- How can RSPO members scale up small-holders certification?
- How should RSPO engage with consumers to seek their active support?
- What are the main bottlenecks in the CSPO supply chain and how can industries overcome them?
- Will Europe be able to fulfil its potential to drive up CSPO demand?
This conference will be the first in a series of interactive dialogues which RSPO will host in the next six months in Europe to share the message that a ‘100% CSPO market in Europe is our shared responsibility’.
Increase
In the 10 years since the inception of RSPO, its membership has grown to more than 1400 entities. In that time, the percentage of the world's palm oil production to be RSPO certified has grown to 16%.
Increasing numbers of brands have announced their commitment to source only CSPO and are rapidly moving towards 100% CSPO in their supply chain.
“Europe is reaching a turning point,” comments RSPO European Director Danielle Morley, “By the end of 2014, up to 500 million European consumers… will be demanding that industry get serious on deforestation and other palm oil problems.”
Last month, Morley told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com that it is time for the issue of sustainable palm oil to become more visible to the European market.
“The RSPO cannot improve communication on sustainable palm oil by itself,” she said.
As a membership organisation, Danielle says the key objective for RSPO is to “build the community amongst the membership so it is more aligned on messaging and we can all work together to leverage greater impact through using member’s communication channels.”