All eyes will be on PepsiCo next week as Crystal Pepsi hits shelves in the US -- a clear cola that PepsiCo sold for a limited time in the 90s.
We can use this spotlight to amp up the pressure on PepsiCo to fix its palm oil policy.
While PepsiCo makes juicy profits off this product relaunch, Indonesia’s rainforest, workers, and endangered animals pay a heavy price. PepsiCo’s palm oil policy contains a huge loophole -- it doesn’t cover its producer in Indonesia, IndoFood.
So, we’re disrupting the launch of Crystal Pepsi to get it to do the right thing.
Sign the petition to tell PepsiCo to fix its palm oil policy now.
PepsiCo buys over 470,000 metric tons of palm oil each year -- so much that if you filled Pepsi cans with palm oil, there would be enough to wrap around the entire world four times over.
This cheap palm oil is used to produce PepsiCo products that line our supermarket shelves. Products like Doritos, Cheetos, Quaker Granola Bars, and Lay’s potato chips.
The demand for palm oil is driving the clearing of swathes of rainforest and carbon-rich peatlands. It’s making greenhouse gas emissions skyrocket and it’s fuelling climate change. It’s pushing endangered species like orangutans, elephants, and tigers to the brink of extinction.
Many workers in the palm oil industry are paid little or nothing at all -- especially women. Children are working on IndoFood plantations. Some workers don’t have access to proper safety equipment, and are exposed to highly toxic chemicals on a daily basis.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The SumOfUs community has pushed PepsiCo to do the right thing before and we can do it again. Our spoof ad of its product Doritos clocked over 20 million views. Thousands of us reviewed Pepsi True on Amazon, plummeting the rating down to 1 star. This brought PepsiCo back to the negotiating table and last year, the company came up with a new palm oil commitment.
This only happened because we stood together -- because when we do, we are powerful. We can push PepsiCo further still, but we need you to help make our voice heard.
Join us: sign the petition to tell PepsiCo to fix its palm oil policy now.
More information
Rainforest Action Network.
Fortune. 29 June 2016.