Projects

Assessment of the sustainability policies of ten Dutch pensionfunds. The aim is to make pension funds use their (financial) power to encourage companies to act responsibly.

Research for PECH Committee: The diversity of detrimental factors impacting the European eel and the number of involved stakeholders pose a challenge for an effective stock management. Knowledge on the economic consequences of single management measures is required to better assess their implications for the involved sectors.

Carrefour SA holds a majority share in Atacadão SA/Carrefour Brasil, the largest retailer in Brazil. Carrefour’s size makes it a major buyer of Brazilian beef and may expose it to deforestation risks, as cattle contributes to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. This report analyses Carrefour’s deforestation risk exposure based on samples collected through store visits. Chain Reaction Research (CRR) visited 48 Carrefour supermarkets in five Brazilian cities, and inspected 480 randomly selected frozen beef products. Data from the product labels establishes supply chain links between Carrefour supermarkets and slaughterhouses located in the Legal Amazon.

AAK is a vegetable oils producer, with its headquarters in Malmö, Sweden. The company has 20 production facilities worldwide, sales offices in more than 25 countries and a total workforce of 3,500 employees. In 2017, its revenue was equivalent to USD 3.2 billion in 2017. Within the world’s palm oil supply chain, AAK is positioned midstream between the largest palm oil refiners/traders and the largest consumer goods companies. The company’s No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) strategy relies on meaningful action from the traders and refiners that supply AAK with refined palm oil. This approach fails to follow industry best practices.

During the last two years, Colombia, the world’s second most biodiverse country, has seen rapidly increasing deforestation. This report from Chain Reaction Research discusses the political changes that led to this surge in deforestation. It then focuses on the cattle supply chain, the most important sector exposing investors to deforestation risk in Colombia.

Since the palm oil sector is capital intensive and needs long-term financing, palm oil companies depend on bank loans. By investing in banks that provide loans to the palm oil industry, investors may indirectly face deforestation-related risks. Loans to a selection of 105 companies involved in the entire palm oil supply chain were analysed. The top 10 banks financing the palm oil sector were identified. Finally, the main investors of the top 10 banks are listed.

This is the 9th edition of Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions. This report shows that two major US arms producers that featured in the 2017 edition of the report, Textron and Orbital ATK, have declared publicly that they no longer produce any cluster munitions. Orbital ATK even declared publicly that cluster munitions have no place in the arsenal of a modern army. These developments are at least partly the result of the pressure from the financial sector.