The problem Palm-to-Palm aims to address is the widespread exploitation of people and wildlife in tropical regions driven by the palm oil industry. This exploitation includes environmental destruction, displacement of indigenous communities, and habitat loss for endangered species.
To tackle this problem, Palm-to-Palm plans to form coalitions with educational and other institutions to raise awareness about the negative impacts of palm oil and to encourage the avoidance of palm oil in foods and consumer products. Additionally, we aim to facilitate substantial and continual reductions in palm oil usage by these institutions, ultimately working towards palm oil independence through our certification process. Our certification process has been adopted into the STARS program of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE: https://stars.aashe.org/) via director, Julian Dautremont. We aspire to nationally certify other institutions as palm oil-reduced and have already achieved success by certifying the University of Michigan.
