The Compact focuses on the four soft commodities seen as the most significant drivers of deforestation: palm oil, timber, soy and beef. Endorsing the Compact means that we will support financing of the transformation of Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) supply chains, and that we expect our clients to be certified according to applicable sustainability certification schemes, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, by 2020.
About the Soft Commodities Compact
In 2010, the CGF’s Board of Directors committed their 400 members, representing organizations with a combined procurement power of over $3 trillion, to stop forest loss in their supply chains by 2020. The ‘Soft Commodities’ Compact is the result of two years of extensive collaboration between the Banking Environment Initiative and the CGF, with advice from the World Wildlife Fund.
The adoption of the Compact reconfirms our commitment to developing and implementing responsible business standards. We are also a co-founder, signatory or member of several key national and international organizations and initiatives. These include the Wolfsberg Group (on anti-money laundering), the Carbon Disclosure Project (on climate change), the Principles for Responsible Investment, the Thun Group of Banks (on human rights) and the UN Global Compact.
About UBS's environmental & social risk framework
UBS applies a robust risk framework to all of our transactions, products, services and activities in order to identify and manage environmental and social risks faced by our clients' and our firm. This is augmented by our stringent due diligence process which identifies and assesses any environmental and social risks associated with a particular client, supplier or transaction. We will not do business with a client or supplier whose activities contravene our position on controversial activities.
