Retailers

Mr. Brodin is the CEO of IKEA. Despite claims that it does not accept illegally logged wood in its products, a report accused IKEA of sourcing manufactured products from suppliers that have used logs that were felled illegally in Ukraine. VGSM, one of IKEA’s suppliers, also cut down trees during a “silence period” between April and mid-June, when certain forms of logging in Ukraine are banned during the critical breeding period for lynx and other species. Those logs were also felled under a “sanitary felling” permit, a widely used loophole in the Ukrainian forest industry that allows for trees to be cut down and sold provided they were already damaged by disease or insect infestation. These permits are often issued even when the felled trees show little or no signs of degradation. According to IKEA, they are the largest producer of wooden furniture in the world, meaning that their operations require large amounts of timber. Despite saying that it will investigate the claim and potentially end its relationship with the law-breaking supplier, the Swedish furniture company received a score of 48% on the Forest 500 Index, failing in the commodity categories of timber, leather, pulp and paper, and palm oil. Its commitment to protect priority forests is also low for all commodities. In 2021, the Swedish giant was also implicated in an Earthsight investigation for selling fur products for children.

Mr. Gibbs is the CEO of Yum! Brands, an American fast-food corporation that owns the majority of the biggest American fast food chains, including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Considering the massive amounts of meat, soy, palm oil, and paper used in its restaurants in the US and across the world, Yum! Brands is a major company that contributes to deforestation in order to get a hold of these commodities. According to the WWF Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard in 2019, Yum used a total of 157,776 tons of palm oil in a year. Despite the corporation having made a commitment to eliminate deforestation from their global supply chains by 2020, a CDP Consumer Deforestation Report found that not only was Yum not able to achieve that target, but industry-wide deforestation goals were also not met. 

Mr. Narita is the Chairman/President of Yakult Honsha Co., a Japanese manufacturer of the popular probiotic milk drink Yakult. It also produces a variety of other food and beverage products, as well as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Through its various product lines, Yakult is exposed to forest risk commodity palm oil, soy, and pulp and paper. Shockingly, it has a score of 3%  on the Forest 500 index; it has made no commitments to protect any priority forests in which it operates. In 2018, it committed to ending deforestation by 2020 but has since dropped that commitment.

Mr. Jelinek is the CEO of Costco, which promotes and sells Charmin, Bounty, and Kirkland toilet paper. All of these products are made from 100% virgin forest fiber, sourced in part from the climate-critical Canadian boreal forest. The boreal is the most carbon-dense forest in the world, and in Canada; however, it is being clearcut at a rate of one million acres a year to make lumber, paper, and, perhaps most egregiously, throwaway tissue products. Furthermore, as documented in a report by the environmental group Mighty Earth, some of the multinational companies that sell their meat to Costco have production facilities in close proximity to where the Amazon fires have raged. These companies' practices exacerbated deforestation.

Mr. Johnson is the CEO of Starbucks, the largest chain of coffee shops in the world (measured by the number of stores). In 2017, Starbucks managed over 24,000 outlets in 70 countries. On the Forest 500 index, Starbucks performs very poorly for palm oil, and pulp and paper, but especially soy, where its commitment strength, reporting and monitoring, and social consideration scores are abysmal, scoring 25% on the index. Starbucks now claims that 99% of its coffee is ethically sourced, but it has yet to adopt sourcing policies that ensure that the palm oil in its baked goods does not contribute to deforestation, climate change, and human rights violations. A Wall Street Journal investigation found human rights abuses on plantations in Malaysia.

Mr. Kempczinski is the CEO of McDonald’s, which has more than 36,000 locations in over 100 countries. Its burgers, sandwiches, sides, and beverages involve significant amounts of beef, soy, and palm oil, as well as paper in packaging. In 2015, over 120,000 metric tons of palm oil were used by McDonald’s. The fast-food restaurant gets its soy from Cargill (see below), which has a long history of deforestation related destruction.

Mr. McMillon is the CEO of Walmart, which set zero-deforestation goals for 2020; however, it failed to put into place a system to track and monitor the origin of forest-risk commodities: palm oil, pulp and paper, soy, and beef. Instead, Walmart takes the position that implementing such a system “is not an immediate business priority.” It is unlikely that it will meet the goals defined for these key commodities, but it also “does not know” what percentage of the soy and beef used in the products it sells is produced with zero net deforestation. Walmart is a major buyer of Cargill’s products, the second-largest Brazilian soy exporter (see David W. MacLennan’s profile, above) 

Mr. Muller is the CEO of the supermarket chain Ahold Delhaize, which forms an umbrella over companies like Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Giant, Hannaford, and other brands. Ahold Delhaize claims that it aims to achieve zero deforestation and conversion by 2025. However, in 2018, they launched a $100 million joint venture with Cargill to operate a new meat packaging plant supplying Ahold Delhaize’s stores in the US, while continuing to source meat from another leading deforestation company, JBS. In reality, the “zero-deforestation goal” applies only to the company itself and not to the entire corporate group, and it is meaningless.

Mr. Taylor is the CEO of the consumer goods giant P&G, which was recently given an F grade in Rainforest Action Network’s scorecard evaluating the major companies, banks and other parties involved in deforestation. P&G has been criticized for their inadequate action in addressing the impact of its sourcing of forest-risk commodities, and failure to ensure that forest sourcing does not infringe on Indigenous rights and negatively impact threatened species. The WWF reported that P&G used a total of 463,295 tons of palm oil in 2019 and was not able to guarantee sourcing 100% sustainable palm oil.