If it is good for the planet, it is good for you.
If it isn’t good for the planet, it is NOT good for you.
You can help to change things. We don’t need one single person doing things perfectly. We need millions of people doing things imperfectly, but still doing something about it!
What can we do to support them?
Till a few years ago, I had no idea how bad palm oil production was. I kept seeing palm oil present in ice creams, chocolate bars, shampoos, soaps and cleaning products. It was pretty much everywhere.
A video of an orangutan fighting bulldozers that were destroying his house, broke my heart. (LINK VIDEO). That was the moment of realisation I had to do something about it. I had no idea what though…
So I started to make some research. Palm oil production was a huge issue.
Turns out that many items in my home had palm oil, and I bought them.
Start checking labels and avoid buying product with Palm Oil (unless it is written that is sustainable)
So I first became a more attentive buyer. I started to read labels. Most of the times I will buy products without it or with a sustainable one. Sustainable palm oil means that they won’t destroy new forests to plant palm oil but simply use the fields that already exist. Sometimes some products went under my radar, but again… I am not perfect and I forgave myself for the few slips I made.
Palm oil is very cheap. This is why is pretty much everywhere. Still, I can’t support companies that are destroying beautiful ancient forests for greed.
Also, I discovered that some companies are worst than others. For example, Mondelez International is the worst offender in regards to deforestation for palm oil. Unfortunately, their brands include very popular ones like Cadbury, Ritz, Toblerone, Oreo and Trident to name a few.
Other brands that should be avoided for the same reasons are: Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg’s, Kraft Heinz, L’Oreal, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever.
So, what can you do? The best way to make your voice heard by these companies is reducing, or even better stopping, buying their products till they change their ethics. There are plenty of companies that have either stopped using it or are only using sustainably sourced one. One former offender used to be Ferrero (they are famous for Nutella). However, in recent years they have stepped up and only use sustainably sourced. (as per WWF scorecard)
I am far from perfect. But I am getting better by the month!
My shoppings get more and more ethical and sustainable as I become more laser focus on a few brands that use only sustainable palm oil or nothing at all. On top of that, I avoid plastic packages and tested on animals product.
2) Support wildlife charities
Wildlife charities like WWF and Born Free are saving as many animals as they can. A friend of mine adopted in my name a baby orangutan, and I also adopted a dolphin and I support on a monthly basis a few animal charities.
When you adopt a wild animal from one of those charities it is a remote adoption! You’re not going to be sent at home a baby elephant or leopard! It means that your monthly contribution help to keep the adopted animal in a protected environment until they are ready to return to wildlife.
3) If you are an investor, consider moving some (if not all) of your investment into ethical and sustainable bonds and assets.
Check with your investment broker which options do they have to switch your money to more sustainable companies. The worst companies regarding deforestation include companies linked to oil exploration; palm oil production; various types of mining; meat stock and logging to name a few.
We don’t need one person doing all the above perfectly. We need millions of us doing the above imperfectly. What do I mean by this? I mean that if we all slowly but surely change our habits and promote better options to friends and family, there is more hope for the future generations to have free wild animals living in their own habitats for example.
