Starbucks: adopt a sustainable palm oil policy. | SumOfUs

Starbucks: adopt a sustainable palm oil policy. | SumOfUs

Your Starbucks coffee break is likely to be contributing to  deforestation, extinction of endangered tigers and orangutans, and  abuses of workers and communities. While other industry giants such as McDonald's, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme have committed to cutting conflict palm oil from their supply chains, Starbucks is taking an ostrich-like approach -- sticking its head in the ground and ignoring this growing emergency, and the concerns of its consumers.

In 2013, facing public pressure, Starbucks announced that it would be sourcing 100% sustainable palm oil by 2015. That deadline has come and gone, and Starbucks needs to hear from us that we won't wait any longer for responsible palm oil.

Starbucks is a recent member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), but the coffee giant has already failed to report mandatory data on its palm oil sourcing to the overseeing body.

And unfortunately, even if Starbucks met RSPO criteria, it wouldn't mean it had achieved gold standards. The RSPO can't guarantee that the palm oil it certifies is deforestation-free. Deforestation is happening in palm oil plantations owned by RSPO members, and NGOs and consumer companies also criticize RSPO's inability to regulate peatland destruction and greenhouse gas emissions.

What's most remarkable about Starbucks' lack of progress on palm oil is that it's in stark contrast to the company's work on coffee. Earlier this year, Starbucks announced that 99 percent of its coffee is now ethically sourced, which it accomplished by developing and implementing the Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices (CAFE), a third-party verified program for farmers to ensure certain human rights and environmental standards are met. Through its CAFE initiative, Starbucks actually reduced  deforestation in its coffee supply chain. Why is it so hard to do the  same for palm oil?