Household products company becomes TFT member
As of January 2019, The Forest Trust has become Earthworm Foundation.
TFT is pleased to announce that New Zealand-based household products company ecostore has become a TFT member and will collaborate on implementing its pledge to No Deforestation and No Exploitation in its palm oil supply chain.
TFT will be helping Ecostore engage with its palm oil suppliers to help achieve transparency and consistency with their commitments. ecostore has already visited some of its suppliers, helping to gain a better understanding of their operations and to create a platform of collaboration.
The company was founded in 1993 with an ethos to create healthy household products that are safer for the environment. Its home and body products, which include everything from laundry powder, dish wash to hand wash, baby moisturiser and toilet cleaner, all share a common standard that ecostore describe as containing no nasty chemicals.
ecostore co-founder Malcolm Rands says: “Our partnership with TFT will help us to better engage with our supply chain and to communicate transparently with stakeholders. Even though we are a small player globally we believe we can encourage best practice in the whole industry as we have recently done by changing all our bottles to plastics derived from sugar. ” TFT Manager Michael Pescott says: “ecostore recognises that simply avoiding the use of palm oil does not help anyone. Palm oil is a high yielding crop meaning it requires less land than other vegetable oils and is profitable, helping to raise the living standards of millions of people in developing countries. Meanwhile environmental destruction and mistreatment of local communities continues, despite the efforts of government and voluntary certification systems.
Although ecostore was the first manufacturer in Australasia to join RSPO in 2007, they now want to reach an even higher standard and to actively work more closely with suppliers towards achieving this. This is the approach the industry needs and ecostore will again show their leadership by being the first New Zealand based business to make such a commitment.”
Palm Oil Investigations (POI) founder Lorinda Jane says: “Consumers are starting to understand that removing palm oil from personal care and cleaning products is near impossible and boycotting the palm oil industry is not the answer. Supporting brands who actively engage in tracing supply will ultimately result in regulating the industry which will encourage other brands to follow suit. POI welcomesecostore’s new policy which shows that brands are committed to being part of the solution rather than contributing to the problem.”
ecostore hopes its announcement will motivate other producers of products containing palm oil to follow suit.
