Developing a global standardWith th

Developing a global standard
With the approaches described above, Migros was acknowledged as the pioneer in
purchasing sustainable palm oil. Following the award by the UN and the above project
communication, efforts now began to focus on gaining the support of further industry
partners. Migros sought to develop an industry standard that would be globally
applicable. As Fausta Borsani put it:
Ten years from now, a sustainable production of palm oil should be business as usual.
We want to achieve a worldwide change of the palm oil production.34
Migros investigated several opportunities for letting sustainable palm oil become business as usual”. In early 2003, Willi Isele, Migros’ purchasing manager for palm
oil, began to contact Swiss food manufacturers in order to discuss joint palm oil
supplies. Furthermore, he and Dr. Robert Keller contacted Swiss industry
organizations in order to suggest that their members jointly purchase sustainable palm
oil, too35. On an international scale, Migros ensured that the sustainability of palm oil
was put on the agenda of businesses and federations. Today, Migros is still “striving to
win over other processors or producers of palm oil within the Food Business Forum,
an independent global food business network, whose current chairman is Claude
Hanser, the President of the Migros Board of Management.”36
However, Migros’ key strategy for developing an industry standard for sustainable
palm oil remains the “Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil” (RSPO).
Development of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
In the summer of 2002, the WWF and Migros began preparations for an international
roundtable of organizations interested in developing an industry standard. While both
Migros and the WWF approached potential partners on an individual base as well as
on conferences, care was taken not to let the preparatory roundtable appear as an event
staged by Migros and the WWF. Instead, the round table was set up by an independent
consultant, Reinier de Man, who also succeeded in gaining the support of Unilever, a
major trader (Cargill) and a bank (Rabobank). These “new players” held joint
meetings with WWF Switzerland, ProForest and Migros in September and December
2002. On these occasions, the logos of WWF and Migros did not appear prominently.
The two organizations did not suggest that they had already developed the one
standard that all other companies should now adopt, too. Instead, Migros simply
presented its palm oil project, its standards, and the experiences it had gained to date37.
Following the proposal of Reinier de Man, the participants of the preparatory round
table agreed that the first meeting of an international round table should take place in
August 2003. That round table was also to include governmental bodies, palm oil
producers and traders, as well as further NGOs, retailers, manufacturers. Two working
groups were set up for the preparation of this round table. In both working groups, Dr.
Ruth Nussbaum from ProForest took on the role of an expert advisor38. An organizing
committee was set up to supervise the work of the round table. Fausta Borsani of
Migros was elected as its treasurer.
In the following months, the parties succeeded in inviting participants from several
dozens organizations to the meetings of the RSPO. Each member of the round table supported these multiplication efforts39. Hence, Migros agreed to contact banks in
Switzerland as the retailer enjoyed good relations with them40.
On the first meeting of the RSPO in Kuala Lumpur on August 21-22, 2003, a letter of
intent was signed by the representatives of numerous stakeholder groups.
Fausta Borsani recalls how she was struck by the reputation that Migros enjoys. When
she first met “new” participants of the RSPO in Kuala Lumpur, people typically did
not have a precise idea of where Switzerland was on the globe; “Migros” and “Migros
criteria”, however, were notions that were familiar to them41.
Fausta Borsani thought it very helpful that Migros had already gained experience in
purchasing sustainable palm oil when engaging in talks with other businesses at the
RSPO. Due to Migros’ experiences, she was in a position to tell other managers that
[products manufactured with sustainable palm oil] are in our stores, now. We are not
talking about possibilities but reality instead.
In general, I think it is very important to demonstrate the feasibility of our
propositions. You cannot keep talks [of the round table] on an abstract level. You need
to demonstrate that [your propositions] can be realized. 42 (Emphasis in original)
Still, Fausta Borsani underlines that the work of the RSPO is based on consensus. All
participants have to agree on the wordings of the criteria and any comment needs to be
considered43.