Help Ensure a Future with Forests!
Part of the Deforestation Free Nation campaign
Size of Wales has produced a suite of resources to support you on your Deforestation Free journey. To achieve your Deforestation Free Business Champion Award you’ll need to complete your Action Plan & Objectives, evidencing any changes you make. Additional support on using the toolkit is available from Size of Wales.*
(*For businesses taking part in the pilot campaign in Monmouthshire, we can offer 1-2-1 Deforestation Free sessions, which will support your learning objective and guide you through the forest-risk audit templates to help identify some concrete actions for change. We can also link you to other businesses who are going through the same process to share learning and offer peer support.)
Deforestation Free Business is part of our Deforestation Free Communities campaign pilot, which aims to bring together schools, businesses, farming communities, local government and community groups to reduce our impact on forests, people and nature. This campaign is funded by the Co-op Foundation and will run for 2 years until March 2024.
Follow these steps to achieve your Deforestation Free Business Champion Award and join a growing, global community who are standing up for forests, people and nature.
Learn about how and where forest-risk commodities are produced, what their impacts can be and what kinds of actions can help reduce deforestation-risk, such as the use of ethical certifications or circular economy models to prevent waste e.g., reuse and refurbishment.
Internally. Take time to reflect on your internal policies and practices as a business, e.g., do you have an ethical sourcing policy or have you made sustainability commitments? Do these policies support forests and protect human rights?
Externally. Look to your suppliers e.g., do they have policies to prevent social impacts in their supply chains or have they made no-deforestation commitments? If not, how can you engage your suppliers on these issues?
Carry out an audit of the forest-risk commodities you buy as a business. This will provide a baseline for the amounts and types of forest-risk products and ingredients you buy, whether directly or indirectly, e.g. through services such as catering, helping to identify where changes can be made.
You now know the areas of your business that carry the most deforestation-risk, so now is the time to start making changes.
This may begin by making a public commitment to sustainable sourcing and changing one forest-risk commodity e.g., starting the process of switching to Fairtrade products or ethically certified, locally produced animal products.
Whichever action you take first, you must commit to making more changes in the future. If you’re a larger business with an employee pension scheme, this could be committing to switching to an ethical pension provider.
Be a Deforestation Free Champion and inspire others to take action. This may be through supplier engagement on forest-risk commodities or writing to your pension provider about ethical pensions. You may also wish to write a blog or press release, publish a video on social media to help spread the word or organise a community event to raise awareness. Scope and creativity are encouraged.
Once you’ve achieved your objectives complete the reporting form in your resource pack to apply for your Deforestation Free Business Champion Award.
You will need to write a summary of your actions and activities and gather up any supporting evidence, for example, photos, press cuttings, blog or video links. You will then need to upload/send your application to: [include hyperlink or email address] and the Deforestation Free team will get back to you as soon as possible.
The Deforestation Free Business Toolkit has been designed by Size of Wales to help businesses ensure that the products, commodities and services they buy, produce or invest in, are not causing tropical deforestation, habitat destruction and social impacts overseas.
Use this template to record any forest-risk commodities you purchase as a business, along with any ethical certifications, risk ratings and other relevant information. It is intended to provide a baseline for the amounts and types of forest-risk products/ingredients you procure, whether directly or indirectly, e.g. through services such as catering, helping to identify where changes can be made.
This template is intended to help you identify areas of risk in your supply chains. It can help you:
• Take stock of any policies that support sustainable sourcing and identify areas for change.
• Identify the measures taken by suppliers to ensure sustainable sourcing, such as no-deforestation and no-land conversion
commitments, or policies to prevent social issues.
Learn about key palm oil facts and find out what you can do to reduce your palm oil footprint.
Learn about the social and environmental impacts of imported beef and how Welsh animal products link back to tropical forests.
Discover what actions you can do to protect forests and Indigenous Peoples from the impact of deforestation and intensive agriculture.
Learn about the impacts of cocoa and coffee production and what sustainable steps you can take to reduce your tropical forest footprint.
Discover some key facts about Wales’ consumption of timber, paper and pulp and find out which actions you can take to reduce your forest footprint.
Discover how the way we save can be tied to environmentally damaging activities, such as deforestation.
Learn what you can do to prevent your savings, pensions and investments from being used to finance destructive industries.
Read this inspiring case study of a Welsh food business partnership with a big focus on ethical and local sustainability.
An inspiring case study from supermarket chain Co-op on their measures to tackle deforestation in supply chains and work towards a healthier and more sustainable future.
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