"RELEASE: Unilever and WRI Announce Partnership to Increase Transparency of Key Commodity Supply Chains to Help End Tropical Deforestation", 1 Sep 2014

…Unilever and the World Resources Institute (WRI) announced a new partnership that will increase transparency in agricultural commodity supply chains with the aim to end tropical deforestation. Deforestation has serious repercussions on the global climate, local livelihoods, and biodiversity…The partnership will enable Unilever and its suppliers to use the Global Forest Watch Commodities platform to monitor forest cover change around commodity supply areas and processing facilities such as palm oil mills. This allows more informed sourcing decisions, and reporting of [sustainability] performance…“Major consumer goods companies are waking up and realizing it’s in their interest to protect forests and pursue sustainable business strategies,” said Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO, WRI…The partnership will help to expand the suite of tools and analyses currently under development for the GFW Commodities platform…Unilever is committed to reducing its environmental impact and ending deforestation across its supply chain through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan…