Our commitment to environmental health includes sourcing our raw materials and packaging in a sustainable manner, both to mitigate the effects of planetary resource depletion and to protect biodiversity while ensuring that human rights and fair labor conditions are upheld throughout our supply chain.
Our Responsibility Standards for Suppliers outline our baseline expectations for any supplier working with us. In addition, we developed specific responsible sourcing criteria for commodities that have been linked to deforestation, including palm oil derivatives and wood-fiber-based products . We are making progress in implementing these commodity-specific sourcing criteria, including educating our direct suppliers on our expectations, driving transparency improvements in these supply chains, and executing non-conformance processes that maximize our influence where we have discovered, or been made aware of, actions that violate our criteria.
In 2018, we initiated two new multi-year partnerships with EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit working at the intersection of animal, environmental, and human health on a global scale, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Our project with the EcoHealth Alliance will pioneer the development of a “One Health” policy framework for making land use decisions that consider socioeconomic factors together with environmental and human health outcomes. This work is initially focused on Liberia, which has significant remaining intact forests. Our work with WWF includes advancing a jurisdictional approach to sustainable palm oil production in Southeast Asia and embedding human health dynamics into the development of Science Based Targets for Forests.
Palm-derived Ingredients
We purchase ingredients from suppliers that make ingredients derived from palm oil. We are committed, therefore, to using our influence to help stop deforestation related to the production of palm oil.
- We work with the Earthworm Foundation (EF), which until 2019 was known as The Forest Trust, to develop and implement specific sourcing requirements for our suppliers that purchase palm oil, palm kernel oil, or ingredients derived from palm or palm kernel oils. Together with EF, we use data from our suppliers to assess risks, investigate non-conformances, and engage with suppliers on issues as they arise. Extensive information, including our transparency metrics and details on the status of non-conformances, are available on the EF Transparency Hub.
- We are members of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and publish our derivatives volume information annually in our RSPO Annual Communication of Progress, which also details our efforts to purchase ingredients derived from RSPO-certified palm and palm kernel oil.
Wood-Fiber Products
For wood-fiber products, we worked with the Rainforest Alliance to update our sourcing criteria in 2018 to align with the principles set forth by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). As with palm oil, we support certification schemes as the most efficient means to ensure the wood-fiber products that we buy meet our sourcing criteria, with our preference being FSC-certified supply.
Every two years, we conduct a survey of both our top suppliers based on spend as well as all suppliers in Asia Pacific, in which we request country-of-origin and certification information. Based on this information, we assess risk for non-conformance with our criteria and work to verify conformance, either through certification or other verification steps, if warranted.
Building upon last year's efforts to engage and educate our supplier base, in 2018 we worked with the Rainforest Alliance to review and revise our supplier survey and data collection process to improve transparency in our paper-based packaging supply chains. A new survey was distributed to the suppliers that constitute the top 87% (approximately) of our 2018 cartons and corrugated-paper-based packaging spend.
The data we receive from our suppliers, following analysis and interpretation, will be used to inform our future focus, priorities and work plans. In 2019, we will continue our partnership with the Rainforest Alliance to develop supplier-specific action plans to ensure continued progress toward compliance with our sourcing principles and criteria.
Conflict Minerals
Conflict Minerals Rule 13p-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 requires public reporting companies that manufacture or contract to manufacture products containing “conflict minerals” (defined as tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold [3TG]) to conduct due diligence on the source and chain of custody of those conflict minerals to help determine whether they originated from the Democratic Republic of Congo or adjoining countries, and directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in those countries. Our Statement on Conflict Minerals outlines our commitment to taking steps to determine the use, country of origin and source of 3TG in our global product portfolio.
Based on our due diligence efforts for the 2018 reporting period, we do not have conclusive information regarding the country of origin or facilities used to process the necessary conflict minerals in the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies’ products. For more information, see our Conflict Minerals Report for the calendar year ended December 31, 2018.
Johnson & Johnson is a member of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI), formerly the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative. RMI is a cross-industry organization that provides resources, tools and information to help companies source conflict-free minerals.