The WWF works with companies. This is nothing new so far. And this always causes misunderstandings. Sometimes these misunderstandings are deliberately promoted by companies. Like now from the Tönnies meat empire.
Tönnies has a devastating public reputation. Working conditions, closeness of the boss and company founder to Putin. And then of course the product: meat, in gigantic quantities. 70,000 pigs are to be slaughtered at Tönnies every day.
What Tönnies claims
Tönnies doesn't really care about the biting criticism as long as business continues. But things haven't been going so well lately. A slump can be noted in the current annual report. Sales fell by twelve percent to around 6.2 billion euros in 2021. Tönnies is purified for this: one becomes “the Continue to consistently advance the transformation process of the entire chains, says the press release about the businessäfts report. After all, “sustainability and environmental protection are essential for the group of companies” and that’s why Tönnies “works with the environmental organization in this regard, for example WWF together”.
Which is true
The cooperation postulated here looks like this: Of course we are WWF interested in every company behaving more sustainably. Also Tönnies. Tönnies is one of currently six companies in one through the GIZ financed project at a monthly group of companies in deforestation-free soy supply chains works. This project group on sustainable soy is led by WWF directed.
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In fact, our experts for sustainable supply chains sat together in online meetings with representatives from Tönnies and other companies. And Tönnies really needs it: three quarters of global soy consumption is used for animal feed. Tönnies is the market-leading meat company in Germany. And cuts the one we recently published Deforestation scorecard with 37 percent among the worst of all participating companies.
The scorecard was picked up in Spiegel, for example. There Tönnies claimed, “the matrix of WWF “It's hardly applicable to Tönnies because they don't buy soy directly.”. From the point of view of WWF and according to international agreements such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies are responsible for their entire supply chain. This is also the case in the current draft of a new one Anchored in EU law to stop imported deforestation. Tönnies is therefore also responsible for human rights violations and environmental destruction along the supply chains for the soy used in animal feed. Und thus also for the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the Brazilian Cerrado. The fact that Tönnies also recognized this is shown by her participation in the event WWF carried out project group.
What happens now
Without the consent and information of the WWF has Tönnies in the Press release announcing the 2021 annual figures Participation in the project group was used to establish a supposed partnership with the WWF to point out their seemingly comprehensive commitment to sustainability.
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This is as bold as it is transparent. To date, Tönnies has not yet made a written commitment to participation and the ambitious goals of the project group. In addition, the communication measures decided upon in the group were knowingly circumvented. We have therefore decided to exclude Tönnies from the project group.
Yes, we at WWF In line with our mission for the environment, we have an interest in ensuring that even the most unsustainable companies improve. Especially when they have such great market power and therefore leverage for greater sustainability. Transformative influence is our mantra here. Abut not at any price.
Which doesn't work at all
Who “project with that WWF“ prominently placed in its communication around the annual report without demonstrably bringing about positive changes in its supply chains, takes advantage of the brand’s publicity WWF out of. That doesn't sound like collaboration to us, but rather like greenwashing.
The WWF has also been calling for a move away from our meat-heavy diet for a long time. It is unhealthy for us humans and our planet. However, animal feed production is one of the main drivers of deforestation in Brazil. We are working to make change on many fronts, including our culinary compass for a healthy earth.
We would be very happy if meat processing companies such as Tönnies or animal feed manufacturers would also fundamentally change to achieve these goals. What is not acceptable to us is that these companies then present themselves as cleaner than they actually are through a supposed partnership – even though our communication agreement with the companies prohibits this and our studies show the opposite.
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