PalmOil Scan

I’m so very very grateful for the folks championing this important cause. This app does a fantastic job of making an extremely complicated issue easy and actionable for the everyday person. I love the function of contacting a company of products using unsustainable palm oil, but it doesn’t work for me. When clicking the button for the action to contact companies, the app tries to open the Apple mail app, which I don’t use. Can y’all please build in some other mechanism of completing the action for users that don’t use the Apple mail app? Thank you!

EDITED (from first review, titled “Inaccurate”): I like the purpose of this app, but it labels may to many companies as “Excellent”. It is largely based on companies commitments, but not actually what they are doing. It is also mostly based on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This may sound good, but it is actually not. For starters, the RSPO fails to enforce its own regulations. For example, Procter and Gamble (P&G) is a member of RSPO, yet it is linked to intense destruction of natural wildlife habitat and severe human rights violations. However, the app lists them as “good”! Actually, many companies in the RSPO are like that. The rating algorithm should take into account studies done to measure the company’s deforestation and human rights abuses, not just the purchases of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO). Also, the RSPO is dominated by businesses and they are making the majority of the decisions at this point. RSPO is not driving necessary change. This app needs a place for other certifications, including Fair Trade and Palm Done Right. In addition, membership in POIG should be considered as well.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Palm Oil Scanner app has been quite useful in helping me decide products to buy. I’ve even stopped buying some items learning that the manufacturer doesn’t care about the environment nor animals nor the rain forest. If we don’t start caring, who will?