“The arrival of the USA’s first shipment of sustainably produced palm oil is an important milestone for AAK,” says Jean-Marc Rotsaert, president of AAK US. “It means, for the first time, that our customers have the opportunity to purchase palm oil which has been independently verified as having been sustainably produced. They can then be among the first to claim that their business uses sustainably produced palm oil.”

America’s first shipment of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) has been produced by United Plantations which, in August 2008, became the first company in the world to be painstakingly measured against the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)’s sustainability principles and criteria. In order to receive and process this special oil, AAK’s New Jersey refinery had to become RSPO audited and certified. The result is that AAK’s customers now have the option to request independently verified, sustainable palm oil — a first for North America.

For those customers who are unable to buy CSPO, due to supply chain or processing restrictions, AAK is offering GreenPalm certificates as a way to offset their use of palm oil. AAK worked with the RSPO to develop GreenPalm, a certificate trading program that enables businesses to support sustainable production by buying certificates from producers who have passed their RSPO sustainability audits.

In a little more then 18 months, GreenPalm has enabled sustainable producers to earn over $4M of additional revenue in return for operating sustainably. More information about GreenPalm can be found at www.greenpalm.org.