The consumer goods giant Mondelēz –– the maker of well-known brands like Oreos, Ritz crackers, and Cadbury chocolate –– released their annual Snacking Made Right ESG Report yesterday, providing updates on their sustainability ambitions and policies.
Daniel Carrillo, Forest Campaign Director for Rainforest Action Network (RAN), issued the following statement in response:
“Mondelēz’s claims on sustainability simply can’t be trusted by the company’s customers or investors. Mondelēz has once again issued policies permitting deforestation and degradation of forests in its supply chain, even as the ongoing climate crisis is partially exacerbated by the production of the ingredients used in its products.
“Mondelēz failed to adopt a No Deforestation, No Peatland, No Exploitation (NDPE) policy across all the forest-risk commodities in its supply chain, which is the first step in ensuring its products are free of destruction and human rights abuses. In publishing a so-called deforestation-free commitment that lacks ambition and enables the ongoing sourcing of deforestation-tainted commodities for years to come, Mondelēz has missed the mark.
“With this latest update, Mondelēz has fallen behind its peers like Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, and Kao, which have refreshed their NDPE policies by adopting a corporate group approach to address one of the main culprits driving deforestation: shadow companies. Mondelēz’s policy enables producer companies like the Harita Group and Royal Golden Eagle to continue driving deforestation while evading accountability.”
Despite Mondelēz’s statements that it “firmly believe in Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for expansion of industrial agriculture”, RAN’s recent evaluation of Mondelēz’s policies in the annual Keep Forest Standing scorecard gave Mondelēz an F grade and showed that it continues to lack credible human rights due diligence and independent verification mechanisms to ensure FPIC rights are fulfilled. A full assessment of its policies and actions to end deforestation and human rights is available at https://www.ran.org/kfs-scorecard/