1 April 2021
The Soy Toolkit at Work in Companies
The soy supply chain is complex and as soy production has expanded rapidly at great scale, the potential environmental and social risks also increase.
The Soy Toolkit provides a five-step approach for companies that want to decouple soy production and trading from deforestation, conversion of native vegetation and human rights violations.
Proforest has developed a series of webinar courses to guide companies through each of the five steps:
- Assess and plan the implementation of soy sourcing commitments
- Understand supply chain risks
- Engage suppliers
- Establish a purchase control system
- Monitor, verify and report
Two companies who use the Soy Toolkit spoke at a panel event to launch these online courses, highlighting two distinct benefits: supplier engagement and capacity building.
Renata Nogueira, South America Sustainability Manager for Cargill, talked about how the toolkit has given Cargill a clear path to follow and encouraged all private sector players to align with sustainability best practice. “The toolkit has helped Cargill to balance implementation of best practice with market requirements. We have used it to build a traceable supply chain, and to find synergy for all actors. Supplier engagement is key, we must listen and respond to issues with solutions that work for everyone.”
AAK decided to look at soy supply chains alongside palm oil, despite the small volumes it buys. The toolkit provided a structure for the company to follow, aligned to its deforestation-free commitment by 2025. Caroline Westerik-Sikking, Global Manager of Sustainable Oils at AAK, talked about how they use the toolkit to educate AAK’s sourcing and trading teams: “It is a great way to onboard colleagues and bring them along with us on our journey of Responsible Sourcing. We have also used the soy toolkit to do outreach to suppliers, who are often new to this, but we know that engagement with suppliers is key to build awareness and capacity.”
The webinars are available on the soy toolkit website. In addition, you can find interviews and blog posts about the soy toolkit on the site, including interviews with McDonald’s and CDP.
The Soy Toolkit is part of Proforest’s Responsible Sourcing Toolkits programme, and has been developed as part of the Good Growth Partnership’s Responsible Demand Project, thanks to financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The Soy Toolkit is available in English, Portuguese and Mandarin.