We won!
- Details
- Published on Friday, 23 October 2015 10:15
- Written by editor
A,
Great news! We just won a major victory for our palm oil campaign!
Astra Agro Lestari, Indonesia’s second largest palm oil producer, and manager of nearly 300,000 hectares of palm oil plantations, has announced a strong policy to protect forests, local communities, endangered species, and prohibit burning throughout its supply chain.
This is a huge victory -- and it wouldn’t have happened without us. Together, we executed an effective strategy targeting Astra’s parent company and business partners.
Here’s what we did:
A stampede of elephants (okay, SumOfUs members in costumes) gathered in front of the luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotels in New York and London (owned by the same company as Astra Agro Lestari) to call for the company to end its role in rainforest destruction.
Passers-by were not the only ones intrigued by this protest, as Astra’s management contacted us later on that day to invite us to the negotiating table.
During the negotiating process, thousands of us left comments and voiced our concerns on the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s Facebook page. It certainly got their attention!
And to top it off, more than 150,000 SumOfus members called on Pizza Hut to honor its zero deforestation commitment by pressuring Jardines Matheson -- Astra’s parent company and Pizza Hut’s largest franchisee -- to clean up its supply chain.
Astra’s new policy is a landmark victory for the rainforest, and a major breakthrough for the future of Indonesia’s palm oil industry. Astra’s move should help convince other industry giants to change their ways.
Congratulations on such a big win and thank you for all that you do,
Carys, Hanna, Fatah, Nicole,and the team at SumOfUs
P.S. We’ve still got work to do to ensure that corporations now follow through with what they have promised on paper.r0
