Danone to phase out supplies of paper, packaging products from APP, joins 11 companies that have dropped APP following claims of illegal ramin usage including Mondi, Xerox, National Geographic, Walmart China

Kendall Sinclair

AMSTERDAM , April 2, 2012 (press release) – Danone has released a statement confirming plans to phase out supplies of paper and packaging products from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). The statement, which you can read here also confirms that the company intends to develop a zero deforestation policy, which will cover all of the commodities it buys that could be linked to deforestation. Danone joins the likes of Nestle, Kraft, Unilever, Adidas and many more who have already dropped APP.

As well as welcoming this decision by Danone, we'd like to say a big thank you to all of you that helped put pressure on other customers of APP in the past few weeks since the release of the APP illegal ramin scandal The results have been phenomenal, with most of the 11 companies we named taking steps to deal with APP. These include Mondi, Parragon, National Geographic, Constable and Robinson and Acer. Even Collins Debden, first in Australia and then in the UK, has confirmed that it will no longer source from APP. This is bold move for a company whose parent company Nippecraft is majority-owned by APP.

Among the others, Xerox first claimed publicly that it stopped dealing with APP 'years ago' but has now confirmed that there were implementation problems as recently as 2011. The company has confirmed it will be reinforcing a policy banning any purchases from APP. Then there is Walmart China, which no longer stocks the brand of APP copy paper that was found to contain rainforest fibre but has not yet committed to stop selling all APP products in its stores.

There are still two companies who have failed to even acknowledge the evidence that they are supporting rainforest destruction and linked to APP's illegal ramin scandal. These companies are Barnes and Noble and Countdown/Progressive, the New Zealand retailer. You can let them know that they should stop buying from APP, here

APP's reputation is in tatters, their brand is toxic, their greenwash campaigns have failed and their customers are leaving in droves. So what next if the company doesn't change course? There are a number other companies that are still connected to the problem. You can see a selection here. Over the next few weeks our campaigners will be reaching out to these and more companies still buying from or stocking APP products. We may well need your help again to put pressure on some of these companies so do watch out for more updates soon.

Please also support our colleagues in the Amazon as the Rainbow Warrior starts a two month tour to expose amazon forest destruction and champion the solutions needed to achieve zero deforestation in Brazil.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.