palm oil

Sinar Mas remains a notorious forest destroyer, as its own audit shows

Posted by jamie — 10 August 2010 at 3:48pm - Comments

An important fact about the Sinar Mas group: it is destroying carbon-rich rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia, including endangered wildlife habitat.

If you take away one thing from this post, that's the most important.

Today, the notorious forest destroyer tried to clear its name as it released an audit it commissioned to examine Greenpeace investigations of its oil palm plantations. Ironically, the audit confirms that Sinar Mas has been clearing forests and peatland, but rather than acknowledging this Sinar Mas is trying to hide the audit through a greenwash exercise.

What happened after you left that comment on Nestlé's Facebook page?

Posted by jamie — 10 August 2010 at 10:09am - Comments

Laura from our international office updates on what's been going on since Nestlé's Facebook page went into meltdown.

"Social media: as you can see, we're learning as we go. Thanks for the comments." On 19 March, that was the status message on Nestlé's Facebook fan page - which had already been under siege for three days. The message didn't stay up there for long but it was obviously in recognition of the page administrator's poor handling of the comments and criticisms that had been streaming in since the launch of our KitKat ad spoof.

Those of us following social media/marketing blogs know what happened to Nestlé's online reputation - it quickly became synonomous with words like: "disaster", "kitkatastrophe", "nightmare", "meltdown" and so on. But what did all of those Facebook comments do for Indonesia's rainforests?

HSBC drops shares in forest trashing Sinar Mas

Posted by jamie — 8 July 2010 at 9:21am - Comments

Wahey, you've scored another victory! After receiving nearly 10,000 emails (and seeing some excellent spoof adverts), HSBC has sold its shares in Sinar Mas, one of the worst companies responsible for ripping up the Indonesian rainforest for palm oil and pulp plantations. It's fantastic news (as The Guardian was quick to agree) that has shone a light on the financial side of deforestation. And you made this happen - thanks!

Pulping the Planet: just like palm oil, paper threatens Indonesia's rainforests too

Posted by jamie — 6 July 2010 at 9:56am - Comments

Like orang-utans, the future of Sumatran tigers is being jeopordised by the relentless destruction of their habitat by paper giant APP

Even though we've had huge success in turning companies like Unilever, Nestlé and Kraft off palm oil produced by Sinar Mas, that only represents one part of the jigsaw and Sinar Mas is still chewing its way through Indonesia's rainforests.

Palm oil is one of two plantation products which are driving deforestation in Indonesia, paper being the other big hitter. Needless to say, Sinar Mas is up to its neck in the paper business as well and we've compiled new evidence in a report called Pulping the Planet which shows exactly how its pulp and paper operations are threatening the forests just as much as its palm oil business is.

How Sinar Mas Is Pulping the Planet

Last edited 5 July 2010 at 1:57pm
Publication date: 
6 July, 2010

Controlled by the Indonesian Widjaja family, the Sinar Mas group is one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia engaged in clearing rainforests and destroying peatlands. The group also has significant interests in coal mining, amongst other sectors.

Sinar Mas’ pulp and paper division, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), is Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper producer.

Download the report:

HSBC adverts are just greenwash, so why not make your own?

Posted by jamie — 3 June 2010 at 11:08am - Comments

If this man's tree-top home was in the way of profit, do you think HSBC would really stop the bulldozers? 

Update: Thanks to the thousands of emails sent and the videos you made, HSBC have since sold their shares in Sinar Mas.

HSBC's advertising creates a world where this monolithic financial institution truly empathises with the cultural, environmental and deeply symbolic relationships people have with trees and rainforests. It's a make-believe world, of course. The bank's actions speak far louder than the syrupy voiceovers and twee sentiments in their adverts, so just like BP's logo, they're ripe for a makeover. So why not make one of your own?

HSBC forest policy has loopholes you could drive a bulldozer through

Posted by jamie — 19 May 2010 at 12:04pm - Comments

Given we've turned our sights away from Nestle towards HSBC, a few more details might be in order about why we've gone from chocolatey giant to banking colossus as the next stage in our campaign to stop Indonesia's rainforests being replaced with palm oil and paper plantations. It's a lateral step but then our intent has always been to tackle the palm oil industry at every level, from production to consumption and all points in between.

Kit Kat maker drops suppliers who wreck orang-utan habitat

Last edited 17 May 2010 at 11:33am
17 May, 2010

Chocolate giant Nestle has agreed to stop using palm oil and other ingredients from suppliers that destroy the rainforest home of the last remaining orangutans in its popular snacks such as KitKat.

The move to cut deforestation out of the supply chain of the world's largest food and drink company comes just two months after Greenpeace launched a campaign urging Nestle to stop using palm oil and pulp and paper products from companies trashing rainforests in Indonesia.

Success! You made Nestlé drop dodgy palm oil! Now let's bank it with HSBC

Posted by jamie — 17 May 2010 at 10:28am - Comments
Nestle won! HSCB next!
All rights reserved. Credit: Greenpeace

You'll never guess what. Nestlé has only gone and agreed to our campaign demands! And you've made this possible. We really, seriously could not have done it without you. Now we need to move straight on to the next big player in the palm oil industry - banking giant HSBC.

Get your message to Nestlé in the papers

Posted by jamie — 5 May 2010 at 4:30pm - Comments
Why is there a finger in my Kit-Kat?
All rights reserved. Credit: Greenpeace / John Novis
Kit-Kats use palm oil from Indonesian plantations - threatening orangutan habitats

Okay, so Nestlé has received tens of thousands of emails, not to mention hundreds (maybe even thousands) of phone calls about the palm oil in its products, but we're still not seeing much in the way of affirmative action. So how about putting a huge advert in a major international newspaper to remind the executives that we're still expecting to see some major announcements very soon?

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