Our Natural Raw Materials

Reckitt is committed to No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation (NDPE) which we deliver in our supply chains through the implementation of our palm oil policy and programme.

Our approach applies to 100% of palm oil sourced directly - Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) in our fats blends, soap noodles and palm derived surfactants volumes. Our palm oil programme comprises of a combination of direct supply chain activity including traceability exercises, satellite monitoring and supplier engagement, alongside collaboration with industry groups and NGO partners to progress industry level challenges that we cannot address alone.

Our approach enables us to monitor compliance in our supply chain to our No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation (NDPE) commitment, and our progress towards achieving this commitment for fats blends by 2025, and palm derivatives by 2030. Progress against planned targets is reviewed annually with procurement, and updated as necessary, ensuring we have the resources in place to deliver these commitments.

Our ambitions have been set with consideration of the commitments of industry groups such as the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and Action for Sustainable Derivatives (ASD) together with an understanding of our suppliers’ ongoing progress and the type of palm being supplied. 93% of the palm based materials we source directly are derivatives (soap noodles and palm derived surfactants).

To support our progress towards NDPE we committed to purchase 80% of palm oil in support of the RSPO programme by 2023, covering fats blends and soap noodles. We have achieved this through a combination of physically segregated mass balance and credits. We are on track to deliver our commitment for 100% of directly purchased palm oil in support of the RSPO programme by 2026.

We comply with the RSPO Shared Responsibility (SR) requirements as disclosed in our MyRSPO profile which we update annually.

We work directly with suppliers and partners to improve the transparency and traceability of our palm oil supply chain.

Traceability is the foundation that enables us to identify risks such as deforestation in our supply chains. We complete an annual traceability exercise for our fats blends, soap noodle, and palm derived surfactant suppliers. As the majority of our volume are palm oil derivatives, traceability can be challenging given the longer more complex supply chains. The results from these exercises demonstrate we are improving supply chain visibility year on year. Having achieved 94% traceability to plantation for fats blends, we are focusing on increasing traceability for soap noodles and palm derived surfactants.

Further information on traceability can be found in our ESG data book and mill lists.

We use satellite monitoring combined with our traceability information to verify our supply chain is compliant to our NDPE policy, and to identify any non-compliances to follow up with suppliers directly. 

In 2022 we trialled satellite monitoring for our priority palm derived surfactant volumes which are sourced from Indonesia and Malaysia (89% of the surfactant volume) and in 2023 we extended our satellite monitoring coverage to 100% of our fats blends and soap noodle volumes. The NDV analysis from our satellite monitoring exercise has identified how each supplier can improve their NDV score, we are now focused on supporting suppliers that are not meeting our scorecard performance requirements.
Our satellite monitoring approach is aligned with the CGF’s Monitoring Minimum Requirements guidelines.

NDV of our supply chains through satellite monitoring enables us to track deforestation in our supply chains. In 2023, our NDV process identified that the percentage of fats blends and soap noodle palm oil volumes linked to deforestation and peat destruction remains low.  Further information can be found in our ESG data book and below under the ‘grievance resolution’ heading. 

Alongside satellite monitoring we also monitor progress in our supply chain at mill level through suppliers IRF reports. IRF reports capture the number of mills in our supply chain 'delivering' against NDPE commitments or working towards these.

In 2022, 64% of fats blends and soap noodles suppliers submitted IRF reports, representing 60% of our 2022 volume. Based on the volumes of suppliers who submitted an IRF report, 85% of our fats blends volume and 49% of our soap noodles volume is 'delivering' NDPE. We will track progress of these scores year on year, more detail is available in our data book.

Our NRM standard is shared with 100% of our fats blends, soap noodle and palm derived surfactant suppliers as part of the contracting process ensuring they are aware of the sourcing standards they are expected to uphold.  The standard specifies a requirement for our suppliers to have systems in place to identify, monitor, mitigate and remedy any non-compliances to this policy in their supply chain.

We also engage with 100% of our fats blends and soap noodles suppliers directly throughout the year and engage regularly with our surfactant suppliers through ASD; suppliers who are ASD members supply 18% of our palm derived surfactant volume.  For more information on how we are engaging tier two suppliers please see the section on supplier collaboration below.

A list of all fats blends and soap noodles suppliers, and the palm derived surfactant suppliers who supply 96% of our palm derived surfactant volume can be found in the ESG data book.

Supplier performance: At regular meetings with palm oil suppliers, we review progress against the scorecard performance criteria we have put in place, these include targets on traceability, NDV and grievance management. Supplier performance is reviewed by procurement and sustainability regularly to ensure we are on track to deliver our NDPE commitments.  

To help achieve our NDPE target of 2030 we have included a target in our supplier scorecard for suppliers to improve volumes verified as deforestation free year on year, or be on or above their supplier group average for NDV volume. In 2023 we exceeded our target of 65% of our fats blends and soap noodle suppliers achieving this, with a score of 71%. We have plans in place to keep us on track for suppliers to achieve our target of 100% by 2030, enabling us to deliver on our NDPE commitment.

Supplier capacity building: Alongside our scorecard we ask selected suppliers to complete the Earthworm Foundation’s (Earthworm) assessments of the systems they have in place to implement NDPE. Engagement for Policy Implementation (EPI), or EPI Lite, is a self-assessment of supplier NDPE management systems.  Since 2022, 74% of tier one suppliers, and 12% of tier two suppliers by volume have completed this assessment. You can read more about our collaboration with India suppliers following their EPI Lite assessment in our 2023 sustainability report.

Supplier collaboration:  In 2023 we extended supplier engagement to tier two suppliers after identifying that a small number of these were supplying our direct suppliers over 30% of our annual volume. In collaboration with Earthworm, we are now engaging our tier one and tier two suppliers together to improve supply chain transparency.  

Our grievance procedure outlines our approach to grievances, which is aligned to the CGF Monitoring and Reporting Framework (MRF) principles. Our grievance log contains grievances that we have been made aware of directly – this is usually through NGO communications or as identified by satellite monitoring as part of our NDV process.

We follow up grievances directly with our fats blends and soap noodle suppliers and work collaboratively to address these as members of the Earthworm Grievance Action Group. For palm derived surfactants we support the ASD grievance process and work with suppliers directly as necessary. We take a risk-based approach to grievance management, prioritising action on the highest risk grievances.  

We partner with NGOs and industry groups to implement our palm oil programme and achieve our NDPE targets. One example of this is our partnership with Earthworm on our NDV pathway for fats blend and soap noodles, supplier capacity building, and landscape programmes.

 For derivatives we are active ASD members which enables us to improve transparency in a segment of the industry or that has long, complex supply chains. By participating in the development of the ASD workstreams, including traceability and satellite monitoring, we encourage our own suppliers, and the broader industry to progress.

At a local level we develop projects to address specific challenges. For example, our project with Earthworm and I-SPOC to build the capacity of India palm oil traders to implement NDPE in our shared supply chains. You can read more about this in our sustainability report.  

At a global level we are members of the CGF and sit on their Steering Group. CGF enables us to use leverage to make changes in the industry that we cannot achieve alone and to drive improvements in shared supply chains collectively. We align with the CGF forest positives approach, and are taking actions to deliver this collective industry commitment to DCF palm.

As part of our palm oil programme we seek to address challenges in collaboration with others, one way we do this is supporting NGO landscape programmes. Production landscapes prioritised for focus are high priority sourcing regions for palm oil, where significant environmental and social challenges are known to be present, and where there is good potential to achieve positive environmental and socio-economic impacts through collaborative action with a range of stakeholders.

In 2023 Reckitt continued to support Earthworm’s landscape programmes in Riau, Indonesia and Sabah, Malaysia in collaboration with other companies and our suppliers. These cover 17% of our mills by volume (based on 2023 traceability data). Addressing deforestation risks are a key part of these initiatives, including implementing effective on the ground monitoring and response systems. For example, the Sabah landscape programme has resulted in a 22% reduction in deforestation by companies and communities between 2020 and 2023. Monitoring continues to identify forest loss in specific hotspots and teams work with local communities to ensure any palm oil development ensures sustainable land use in compliance with the local Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil Certification (MSPO) standard.

Our Natural Raw Material (NRM) Sourcing Standard outlines our sourcing requirements which apply to paper and board suppliers. These requirements are aligned to a forest positives approach and include our commitment to recycled and certified material.  Our NRM Sourcing Standard is shared with 100% of paper and board suppliers as part of the contracting process, ensuring that they are aware of the requirements they are expected to uphold.  

Our commitment is 100% of paper and board to either be from recycled sources or to be FSC, PEFC or SFI certified by 2025, for both direct suppliers and co-packers. We are pleased with our progress, maintaining 99% recycled or certified paper and board in 2023. Our performance is monitored through annual engagement with suppliers.

In 2023, 99% of paper and board came from recycled or certified sources, 48% from recycled, 35% from mixed, and 17% was from virgin sources. All certified sources have full chain of custody, and in 2023 99.7% of our paper and board was traceable to its country of origin.  

A list of our paper and board co-packers and direct suppliers can be found in our ESG data book. We engage all these suppliers in an annual process to monitor compliance to our sourcing policy commitments which are aligned with a forest positive approach. We prioritise follow up with any non-compliant suppliers.

Annually, we engage with all our direct suppliers and co-packers to identify if the material provided to Reckitt is recycled or certified (FSC/PEFC/SFI) and therefore is compliant with our policy. Details such as chain of custody certificate number, origin of material and supplier sustainability commitments are provided. This information helps us to identify compliance with our NRM Sourcing Standard, which is aligned with the Consumer Goods Forum’s (CGF) forest positive Approach.

As 99% of our volume is from recycled or certified sources, we are focused on improvements with the remaining non-compliant 1% and tracking supplier improvement beyond certification. In 2023 we started tracking supplier sustainability commitments to begin to understand their alignment with our wider approach.

The sourcing requirements outlined in our Natural Raw Material (NRM) Sourcing Standard apply to our soy suppliers. These include traceability and the implementation of our commitment to no deforestation or conversion of legally protected natural areas and important landscapes. Our NRM sourcing standard is aligned with the Consumer Goods Forum’s (CGF) forest positive approach.

Our NRM Sourcing Standard is shared with 100% of direct soy suppliers as part of the contracting process to ensure they are aware of the sourcing standards that we expect them to uphold in our shared supply chain. 

The majority of the soy we source directly comes from the US which is low risk for deforestation. We sourced a total of 5897 MT from seven suppliers in 2023, primarily for our nutrition products. We work collaboratively with our suppliers to implement the principles in our sourcing standard, including traceability. Traceability enables us to identify and act on any potential risks common to soy, including deforestation or land conversation. Further information, including our supplier list can be found in our ESG data book.