The Darker Side of Dove

I've been a big fan of Dove lately -- strongly influenced by their Dove "Real Beauty" campaign (I even blogged about it).  Then, I watched the GreenPeace advertisement from 2008 (above), mimicking the real Dove ad (below).

Dove, like many other products, contains palm-oil.  In fact, Unilever, Dove's parent company, uses the most palm-oil in the world -- 4% of total production.

Is palm-oil that bad?

"The charges against palm oil are serious: environmental groups regard it as a danger not only to Asian wildlife but also to the health of the planet. Between 1967 and 2000 the area under cultivation in Indonesia expanded from less than 2,000 square kilometres (770 square miles) to more than 30,000 square kilometres. Deforestation in Indonesia for palm oil and illegal logging is so rapid that a report in 2007 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said most of the country's forest might be destroyed by 2022. Although the rate of forest loss has declined in Indonesia in the past decade, UNEP says the spread of palm-oil plantations is one of the greatest threats to forests in Indonesia and Malaysia." - The Economist.

It was also the cause of the horrible smog in Southeast Asia last month.

When Unilever looked into their supply chain, they realized they were in trouble.  

Mr Neath, VP of Communications & Sustainability for Unilever, said in 2008, “We found that, in one way or another, all of our suppliers have technically infringed either RSPO standards or Indonesian law. It isn't as easy as saying just pick the best, we can't. We are not in a position to do that. The industry almost certainly has to go through fundamental change.” - The Economist.

To solve this problem, Unilever's building a $100M palm-oil processing plant in Indonesia, pledging that its products will only contain sustainable palm-oil by 2020.  

They are far from that goal.  Currently, only 2% comes from sustainable sources.

So, do I hate Dove now?

No, lots (if not most) companies have practices that border on unethical.  I'm not naive.

I'm more surprised by my lack of knowledge on the products I consume and how easily I'm swayed by a commercial like the Dove "Real Beauty Sketches."

I hope the 2% becomes 100% in 2020.  

Unfortunately, even if it does, most of the forest in Indonesia will be ruined by then anyways.