{"id":272482,"date":"2019-09-24T05:33:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T12:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&p=272482"},"modified":"2024-05-10T06:38:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T13:38:39","slug":"bunge-palm-oil-tracking-with-imagery","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/bunge-palm-oil-tracking-with-imagery","title":{"rendered":"Tracking a Minor Ingredient with a Major Impact on Business"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[369852,1001,369792,381322],"tags":[385582,280142,385572],"department":[488822],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-272482","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence--ai","category-commercial","category-location-intelligence","category-sustainability","tag-cpg","tag-deforestation","tag-palm-oil","department-sustainability-risk"],"acf":{"short_description":"Inside the battle for sustainable production of an ingredient in many foods and beauty products. ","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Consumers are beginning to avoid products that aren\u2019t made through sustainable practices, and legislators worldwide are converting those preferences into regulations. In response, businesses have invested in supply chain transparency. Knowing the source\u2014and conditions at the source\u2014of every product component can be cumbersome. However, it has become a business necessity, given procurement standards such as Norway\u2019s new law barring government contracts for products that contribute to rain forest destruction<\/a>."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Article Snapshot:<\/strong> Palm oil is an ingredient in a surprising number of consumer products. To combat deforestation related to its production, companies are turning to satellite imagery.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Prominent multinationals such as Mondel\u0113z, Procter & Gamble, and Cargill have vowed that they won\u2019t source products connected to deforestation. Now a new form of location intelligence<\/a> is helping these and other companies honor regulations and keep promises to consumers.\r\n

The Surprising Ubiquity of a Tropical Tree\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe most widely used vegetable oil on the planet, palm oil is big business. Its production accounts for nearly 10 percent of the world\u2019s permanent cropland<\/a>. The oil plays a major role across the global economy<\/a>\u2014as an ingredient in shampoo, lipstick, ice cream, biofuels, and other consumer staples.\r\n\r\nAs a global refiner of palm oil, Bunge Loders Croklaan (BLC) closely monitors its supply chain. The commodity has been implicated in deforestation, giving rise to protests about harmful practices. To guard its reputation as a responsible palm oil source<\/a>, BLC takes great care in selecting suppliers."},{"acf_fc_layout":"form","form_type":"aside","form_position":"Right","form_title":"CONSULT THE ESRI BRIEF","form_desc":"Stay up to date with this biweekly email featuring thought-provoking articles on location intelligence and critical technology trends.","form_button_label":"Sign up now","form_content":"https:\/\/go.pardot.com\/l\/82202\/2017-10-12\/jw1bmb","form_tag":"low-commitment-form\/sign-up-form"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Lately, BLC has been purchasing and analyzing satellite imagery of supplier plantations to gain added assurances. Imagery can reveal whether suppliers are contributing to deforestation.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe are mapping and monitoring our palm supply chain\u201d says Tijs Lips, sustainability manager at BLC. \u201cAt the moment, we monitor all of our Malaysia supply base [20 million hectares] and soon we\u2019ll add Indonesia, together covering our largest sourcing area.\u201d\r\n\r\nIf BLC staff see any deforestation in the imagery, they mobilize quickly. \u201cWe look most closely at a two-kilometer-wide boundary outside the fence,\u201d Lips explains. \u201cIf we see any encroachment, we gather information or send a team to gather intelligence to see if we need to take corrective measures.\u201d\r\n

Location Technology Illuminates the Supply Chain<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nWith offices in more than 23 countries and processing and manufacturing facilities in 60 locations around the world, BLC uses a geographic information system (GIS) to monitor the movement of palm oil through its supply network and to inform and prioritize action against unsustainable practices.\r\n\r\nThrough its GIS-based monitoring, the company can trace all its palm oil back to the mill where it was processed. BLC is working to have traceability to all plantations of origin as well.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe have key performance indicators (KPIs) that we publish every quarter on dashboards<\/a>, informed in part by our GIS efforts,\u201d Lips says. \u201cSome of the metrics we present include the amount of our area that we monitor, how much of our supply chain we have mapped, and how much we know about our supply.\u201d\r\n

Certification Adds Oversight<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nPart of the supply chain is certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil<\/a> (RSPO), which sets social and environmental criteria companies must meet to be certified as sustainable. RSPO monitors the company\u2019s plantations and processing mills, and certified BLC suppliers command higher prices."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"

New Tools of Detection <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nWith global earth observation coverage now available daily, it\u2019s possible to detect how many trees have disappeared from an area one week to the next. A new forest monitoring tool called Global Forest Watch Pro<\/a> (GFW Pro), available through World Resources Institute (WRI), tracks forests cut or lost to fire.\r\n\r\nA food company can input the locations of all the farms from which it buys raw materials and get an alert from GFW Pro if it detects deforestation at a specific farm.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe technology for monitoring on a global scale has evolved very rapidly and the costs have dropped quite a bit,\u201d says Michael Lippmann, principal and founder of Blue Raster, the company that worked with WRI to build GFW Pro. \u201cThe pressures on companies to ensure the sustainability of their supply chain are increasing. Companies can use this tool to know where they can continue to grow, and also not be named and shamed for impacts they didn\u2019t commit.\u201d","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"To support its own and others\u2019 monitoring efforts, BLC works with the World Resources Institute (WRI), which has partnered with RSPO to set up an interactive mapping platform<\/a> to monitor plantation compliance around the world. For BLC, this visibility means faster time to insight, which fosters quicker, better business decisions and more-sustainable practices.\r\n

Machine Learning Augments Location Intelligence<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nDemands for even faster location intelligence are driving BLC to automate its satellite imagery analysis. It\u2019s one of a cohort of companies using artificial intelligence<\/a> in the form of machine learning to stop harmful practices before they cause excessive damage.\r\n\r\nHaving the data on demand in a secured cloud environment allows BLC to uncover important relationships among the visual clues. The more queries and analysis BLC performs on the imagery, the better the model can predict potential problem areas.\r\n\r\nMany researchers are tackling the prediction problem, looking at such things as an area\u2019s proximity to roads, the distance between plantations, and the hilliness of the terrain against market factors to determine whether a forest is likely to be cut. Through this AI-based approach, BLC hopes to reduce the need for on-the-ground trips by investigators. Ultimately, it aims to predict deforestation.\r\n

The Business Impact of Keeping Watch <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nWhile the predictive capability matures, daily monitoring of palm oil producers remains a must.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn order to have more impact, we need to support the industry in adopting more sustainable practices,\u201d Lips says. \u201cI believe our monitoring will help us to make the right sourcing and intervention decisions.\u201d\r\n\r\nTurning an industry to sustainable forest practices involves a combination of monitoring, auditing, reporting, and modifying behavior through training and incentives.\r\n\r\n\u201cHaving a monitoring program in place goes a long way toward reducing risk and preempting any bad actions taken by individual farmers,\u201d he says. \u201cGIS-based monitoring\u2014and the location intelligence it produces\u2014can also provide a valuable resource for farmers, helping with insights that make operations more efficient.\u201d"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nSustainability \u2502 Companies Police 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