Unilever announced that it has secured enough GreenPalm certificates of sustainable palm oil to cover the requirements of its European business; as well as those of its business in Australia and New Zealand.

This is part of Unilever’s overall commitment to buy all its palm oil from certified sustainable sources by 2015.

GreenPalm is a certificate trading programme, endorsed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which is designed to tackle the environmental and social problems created by the production of palm oil. By selling certificates through the GreenPalm programme, palm oil producers can earn more for their crop through sustainable farming.

«We hope that our actions will transform the palm oil industry and help put a stop to deforestation in South East Asia,» said Gavin Neath, Unilever’s SVP Global Communications and Sustainability.

The company has also started an ad campaign which highlights its activity regarding palm oil. It says that «last year Unilever funded the farming of 180,000 tonnes of RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certified sustainable palm oil. That represented more than half of all the sustainable palm oil traded worldwide. It was only 15% of what we used but this year we will more than double the volume and by 2015 all our palm oil will come from sustainable sources.» In the end of the text there is an encouraging phrase Small actions, big difference«.