Thank you for your recent email concerning Palm Oil.

We appreciate getting feedback and comments on our brands and products.
Your thoughts on the important issue of palm oil are no exception. 

The purpose of this e-mail is to update you on recent developments and
outline what actions Unilever is taking.

As you may know, on 1 May 2008, we announced our intention to ensure that
by 2015 ALL of the palm oil that we use will be drawn from sustainable
sources. The origin of these supplies will be certified by independent
third parties. At the same time we also announced our support for an
immediate moratorium on any further deforestation in Indonesia for palm oil
cultivation. 

No other company has made such a radical commitment. Unilever is credibly
able to do so because it has been working on the sustainable cultivation of
palm oil for more than a decade. We started as far back as 1995 with the
establishment of our sustainable agriculture programme. In 2004 we took the
lead in setting up a multi-stakeholder body – the Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm – and we currently chair this group.

We are taking a number of actions now to reach our goal as soon as
possible. 

•  We are seeking to build a large coalition of like-minded companies and
NGOs – including Greenpeace – to join forces with us so we can act quickly
and effectively. Unilever is only part of the solution.

•  We will engage with the Indonesian Government to get their support on
the ground.

•  We will ensure that the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) drives
change by applying sanctions on suppliers who continue unlawful
deforestation practices.

•  We will start buying certified sustainable palm oil in the second half
of this year as soon as the first certified oil is available so that we can
kick-start the market in this “new” commodity.  For this, we will use the
certification scheme that the Roundtable launched at the end of last year
based on commonly accepted sustainability criteria which includes a
prohibition on the clearing of rainforests. 

We believe that this commitment will have a significant and positive impact
on climate change as well on the protection of the rain forests. 2015 is a
realistic target given the complexities of the palm oil supply chain – we
need to include everyone from the large growers to the small farmer – and
the difficulties of establishing full traceability of all the constituent
parts of palm oil itself. 

We will regularly report our progress and we encourage you to learn more
about our commitments and track our progress by visiting our web site at
www.unilever.com.

I hope this information assures you of how seriously we are taking this
issue and how deeply committed we are to making real change with our
partners. We fully recognise that this is the right thing to do for the
people who use our products, for the environment, and for the communities
in and around which palm oil is grown.

Thank you for your feedback - we look forward to sharing more updates on
our progress.

Sincerely,


Lettemieke Mulder
Director, Corporate Responsibility & NGO Relations
Unilever


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