The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a global non-profit organization founded by WWF, Malaysian Palm Oil Association, Unilever, AAK, and Migros in 2004 to make the palm oil industry sustainable. People and entities who produce or physically handle palm oil can apply to get RSPO certification, showing that they follow RSPO standards for sustainable palm oil.

According to the RSPO, sustainable palm oil means palm oil "that has been farmed, processed, distributed, and sold responsibly with strict rules that protect animals, the environment and people who live and work in oil palm producing countries."

However, not all RSPO-certified palm oil is 100% sustainable. In a study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it was found that RSPO-certified plantations still "incurred some deforestation, including in primary and peatland forests," although the amount of deforestation from RSPO-certified plantations was lower than the amount of deforestation from non-certified plantations. 

Some RSPO-certified products also have a "MIXED" label right next to the certification symbol. This means that not all of the palm oil used in the product is sustainable---sustainable palm oil and unsustainable palm oil are mixed together.

According to Global Labor Justice, investigations at RSPO-certified plantations have found instances of "labor trafficking, child labor, unprotected work with hazardous chemicals, and long-term abuse of temporary contracts."

Another controversial aspect of the RSPO is their remediation and compensation procedure. According to Mongabay, one of RSPO's standards is that members can't carry out deforestation after a cut-off date---for areas deemed as HCV areas, or High Conservation Value areas, the cut-off date is November 2005. For areas deemed as HCS areas, or High Carbon Stock areas, the cut-off date is November 2018. After that, supposedly, the RSPO has a no-deforestation policy. However, if violations occur, the RSPO has a procedure in place called the remediation and compensation procedure (RaCP) that overlooks the violations if the member compensates for the deforestation. According to a 2020 independent review of the RaCP, RSPO-certified companies had deforested "between 700,000 and 1 million hectares" of land and "in more than 98% of the cases there is no evidence of implementation of remediation and compensation measures on the ground." The report also says that "the level of disclosure of non-compliant clearance [deforestation] has far exceeded beyond expectations," implying that growers are committed to the RaCP, and gave some reasons as to why growers aren't following through on the actual remediation and compensation, including "limited capacity and low awareness amongst growers" and "insufficiently clear guidance and a lack of adequate socialisation and support."

Even if the RSPO does have the best intentions, a lot needs to be improved on. We need to call for 100% sustainable palm oil, and fast: every second counts when it comes to the lives of people, animals, and our planet.