Neste Oil on the Public Eye Award listing 14.01.2011
Regarding the recent media attention to Public Eye Award and Neste Oil being listed as one of the nominees for "Worst Company of the Year", the company wishes to respond to the misconceptions and false information circulated related to its sustainability.
First of all, it is important to remember, that focus on biofuels is the EU mandated way to combat climate change. Although Neste Oil produces high quality traffic fuel from renewable raw material, the company strongly opposes any destruction of rainforests and irresponsible use of land, as well as mistreatment of indigenous people. The company cooperates with local NGOs in the South-East Asia and actively supports work in the areas of legislation and certification designed to prevent the irresponsible production of palm oil. Neste Oil has committed itself to an alliance calling for a ban on the felling of rainforest and is playing an active role in the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil). In fact, the company was the first oil company to join the organization.
Neste Oil does not own any oil palm plantations or grow any oil palm itself. Instead, the company has committed to purchasing only sustainably produced palm oil from reputable and traceable sources. The palm oil companies that supply to Neste Oil are RSPO members, and committed to certification. We know exactly where the palm oil is produced, and we prefer UTZ certified volumes to ensure full traceability of palm oil. This is not the case with many other palm oil users in the world.
It is the food industry that still uses the majority (approx. 80 %) of the palm oil produced in the world, chemical industry coming 2nd, and biofuels the 3rd with a much smaller share. This should help to put things and the criticism into perspective. The amount of raw material required for our renewable diesel production will increase, but our main focus will be on side and waste products of palm oil production, e.g. stearine and palm fatty acid distillate. Additionally, Neste Oil will continue to utilize also other raw materials, such as waste fat from food industry and other vegetable oils, as well as R&D work focusing on new raw materials such as algae and microbial oils.
Neste Oil has been recognized and awarded for its sustainability in various international forums. Neste Oil is repeatedly included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and is featured in the Ethibel Pioneer Investment Register. It is on The Global 100 list of the world's most sustainable corporations for the 4th year in a row. In Addition, Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD) has ranked Neste Oil as the best performer in the Oil & Gas sector. For more information, see www.nesteoil.com -> Responsibility.
The Public Eye Award as well as the NGOs behind the campaign continue to point out very important issues and challenges regarding various industries, including the palm oil industry. However, regarding the nomination of Neste Oil, there simply are no measurable facts to support the nomination because the company uses only responsibly produced palm oil. In the sourcing of its palm oil, Neste Oil is able to meet all the legislation-based strict sustainability requirements that are more demanding for the biofuels than for any other industry using palm oil. Therefore, by accusing a company that follows very advanced sustainability policy and complies with the most stringent regulatory requirements, the current campaign seems to mainly serve the NGO's own PR goals.
Neste Oil fully supports nature conservation, such as preventing deforestation, especially rainforest loss, and work to promote biodiversity. In order to affect the actual challenges involved in the palm oil industry, Neste Oil calls for tighter, constructive cooperation amongst all the various stakeholders involved. Cooperation among various governments, supporting Indonesian and Malesian governments in the reinforcement of their environmental legislations, as well as increasing productivity per hectar of oil palm plantations are some of the much more effective means to prevent destruction of rainforests than any campaigns.