How companies are trying to de-rain-forest their supply chains as the Amazon burns

As the Amazon continues to burn—more than 2.3 million acres in Brazil alone have burned so far this year—some companies are beginning to reconsider buying from suppliers in the area. On Friday, H&M announced that it would stop buying leather from Brazil “until there are credible assurances . . . that the leather does not contribute to environmental harm in the Amazon.” The week before, VF Corporation, the parent company of Timberland, Vans, and the North Face, made a similar decision. Mowi, one of the largest seafood companies in the world, said that it was considering finding a new source for soy used in fish feed. KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund, started pressuring the massive ag companies that it invests in to take action. Storebrand, another large Norwegian fund, said that it was ramping up its efforts to find out which companies in its portfolio are contributing to the problem, with a plan to eventually divest if those companies don’t change. Many companies have been tracking their supply chain in the Amazon for years, but they are more concerned now. VF Corporation, which already had a policy in place not to buy leather from cattle grazed in the Amazon, had seen a pattern of ranchers moving closer to the rain forest. “Over the last two and a half years, we’ve enhanced our focus on mapping and tracing the origins of all of our leather and the hides,” says Sean Cady, the company’s vice president of sustainability and responsible sourcing. “In Brazil, we’ve used mapping software, we use a lot of data, to show where different tiers in our supply chain are physically located, and the path that different materials take from hide to finished leather. That deep diligence in Brazil, has allowed us over the last few years to really watch and monitor where the hides originated in our supply chain in Brazil.”...MORE