Thirty Greenpeace UK volunteers and a lifelike animatronic orangutan recreated a rainforest at the main entrance to the corporate headquarters of Mondelez, makers of Oreo cookies near Uxbridge.

Five climbers scaled the outside of the building to hang a banner that reads ‘Oreo, drop dirty palm oil’, and volunteers are decorating the building with giant Oreo-shaped stickers.

They are also handing out information to staff about the impacts of Oreo’s links to palm oil producers that destroy rainforest.

Dirtiest trader

As staff arrived, they heard sounds of the rainforest along with recorded messages expressing customers’ disappointment at the company’s link to forest destroyers.

Greenpeace is calling on the makers Oreo to drop Wilmar International, the biggest and dirtiest palm oil trader in the world.

Mondelez, which also makes Cadbury chocolate and Ritz crackers, is one of the biggest palm oil buyers worldwide. It promised to stop buying palm oil from forest destroyers in 2010 but has yet to keep that promise.

A Greenpeace International investigation shows palm oil suppliers to Mondelez have destroyed 70,000 hectares of rainforest in the last two years.

Oreos, which contain palm oil, are Mondelez’s top selling product. Every year more than 40 billion Oreos are produced in 18 countries. If stacked together they would circle the earth five times.

Broken promise

Fiona Nicholls, a Greenpeace UK campaigner, said: “Oreo promised to stop buying palm oil from forest destroyers years ago but nothing’s changed and now, orangutans are literally dying for a biscuit.

“We’ve seen just how many people care about deforestation for palm oil this week and we’ve brought messages from hundreds of Oreo’s customers here today. It’s time Oreo listened.

“Palm oil can be grown without destroying rainforests and Oreo can help change the palm oil industry for good by dropping the dirtiest palm oil trader of all – Wilmar.”

This Author 

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Greenpeace UK.