The Sustainable
Soy Sourcing
Guidelines
Second Edition

Developed by the retailer and manufacturer members of The Consumer Goods Forum, who are
working collaboratively to drive the implementation of sustainable value chains throughout theconsumer goods industry and around the world. Learn more at www.tcgfsustainability.com.

About The Consumer Goods ForumThe Consumer Goods Forum (“CGF”) is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members
to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry
worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers,service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry
in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 2.5
trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along
the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises 50 manufacturer and retailer
CEOs.
For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.

Contents
Introduction
Approach
Scope
Risk Criteria and Classifications
Verification
Transparency (for individual CGF members)
KPIs (for the CGF membership)
AntitrustContacts
Annex 1: CGF Resolution on Deforestation
Annex 2: Definitions

2236891010111213

1. Introduction
Following its 2010 Deforestation Resolution(1), The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) recognises its responsibility
to ensure that the sourcing of soy does not contribute to deforestation, and has consequently taken action
in drafting the ‘CGF Sustainable Soy Sourcing Guidelines’ for our Industry. These sourcing guidelines giverecommendations on how to address deforestation and other key sustainability issues associated with theproduction of soy. The CGF recognises the complexity and length of the soy supply chain and calls uponother stakeholders along the supply chain to work together to implement the CGF Sustainable Soy Sourcing
Guidelines. These parties include (but are not limited to) growers, commodity traders, feed manufacturers,agricultural organisations and NGOs, etc.
The CGF Sustainable Soy Sourcing Guidelines should be considered ‘a living document’ and will be updated
for latest developments every other year.
For more information, please visit: www.tcgfsustainability.com.

2. Approach
A twin track approach is recommended for the implementation of commitments to sourcing deforestationfree(2) soy. This aims to halt illegal deforestation through accelerating the implementation of relevant legal
frameworks in soy producing countries (such as the Forest Code within Brazil), while ensuring the paralleldevelopment and implementation of measures to exclude all deforestation from soy supply chains.
For companies who have committed to achieve deforestation-free soy, the CGF recommends the following
steps:
1. Conduct a materiality or priority assessment to determine the appropriate scope of their soy sourcing
policy (Section 3);
2. Develop soy sourcing policies to exclude soy from illegal sources (Sections 4 and 5),
3. Require their suppliers to source deforestation-free sustainable soy no later than 2020 (Section 5);
4. Promote transparency through the supply chain and work with upstream suppliers and otherstakeholders to verify progress towards deforestation-free soy (Section 6);
5. Disclose time-bound company policies, goals, etc. that support deforestation-free soy in their supply
chains, and report progress against these (Section 6).
6. Individual companies can set out their own requirements, which may include higher standards thanthe minimum recommended in these guidelines.

(1) For the text of the Resolution, please see Annex 1(2) “Deforestation-free” is defined throughout the document as adhering to the principles of “zero net deforestation”. For a fulldefinition, please see Annex 22

3. Scope
For individual members, the scope of this proposal is to be determined depending on the use of soy in theirrespective businesses. This should consider embedded soy (e.g. in compound feed for animal products) as
well as direct use in products.
For the CGF’s purposes, the scope of this proposal on soy used includes (but is not limited to) the following
categories:
Direct Use Soy:
Soy as a product or as an ingredient in food and non-food products.
•••
•
•
•
•
•

Cooking oil, margarines
Soy milk
Fresh – Edamame
Soy sauce
Bean curd – Tofu
Soy oil
Additives
Glycerides/ Lecithin / Tocopherols

Embedded Soy:
Soy used in feed mix for animal products.
•••••••

Poultry products
Pork productsBeef products
Other meat products
Farmed seafood products
Dairy products
Egg products

Other Soy (Containing and Derived) Products:
For retailers, the scope for products applies to private label brands. For an overview of products derived fromsoy, please see Figure 1.
It is recommended that companies conduct a materiality assessment across the breadth of their productsourcing to determine the appropriate scope of their individual company sourcing policies. CGF hasdeveloped a Soy Measurement Ladder Framework (Table 1) to assist companies with understanding wheresoy may be present in products and assessing materiality relative to total soy use. For more information,please refer to the CGF Soy Measurement Ladder Framework.

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Figure 1: Soy Product Flows(3)(3) Source: A Framework for the Measurement of Soy Usage in Consumer Goods Businesses, CGF.
http://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/files/Publications/201509-CGF_Soy_Ladder_Framework_to_Measure_Soy_Usage.
pdf

4Table 1: Soy Measurement Ladder(4)(4) Source: A Framework for the Measurement of Soy Usage in Consumer Goods Businesses, CGF.
http://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/files/Publications/201509-CGF_Soy_Ladder_Framework_to_Measure_Soy_Usage.
pdf5

4. Risk Criteria and Classifications
Following its Deforestation Resolution, the CGF and its members pledge to help achieve zero net deforestation.
This means we prohibit production on land with native forests, riparian vegetation, natural wetlands, steep
slopes and areas designated by law to serve the purpose of native conservation and/or cultural and social
protection, or High Conservation Value (HCV)(5)(6), with a conversion cut-off date not later than 2009 orlater where sufficient mechanisms are in place to ensure the protection of priority areas. The RTRS mapping
approach is an example of such a mechanism.
Certain regions are developing jurisdictional or landscape approaches to protect ecosystem biodiversity andthese will be reviewed for acceptability once sufficient details are available.
While soy can originate from many parts of the world, forests, savannah and grasslands in South America
are currently at greatest risk from soy production. The priority areas for protection are therefore theAmazon, the Cerrado, the Atlantic Forest, the Gran Chaco, and the Chiquitano(7)(see Figure 2). This will be
reviewed periodically by the CGF soy working group and if other regions or criteria need to be included theRisk Criteria and Classifications will be updated.
Considerations for selecting priority areas include:•••

Presence of native forests, riparian vegetation, natural wetlands, steep slopes, and areas designated bylaw to serve the purpose of native conservation and/or cultural and social protection or HCV;
Risk of conversion due to soy;
Input from relevant stakeholders (eg NGOs, producers).

(5) Including grassland with high biodiversity value(6) Please see http://www.hcvnetwork.org/ for a working definition of HCV(7) WWF, ‘The Growth of Soy, Impacts and Solutions’, 2014

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Figure 2: Landscapes at Risk from Soy Expansion8)(8) Source: Soy and Deforestation, WWF, http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/soy/soyreport/soy_and_
deforestation/75. Verification
In November 2010, the CGF’s Board of Directors agreed to a Resolution on achieving zero net deforestation
by 2020. To comply with this resolution, member companies should verify that the soy used in their supply
chains is deforestation-free, as soon as possible, but by 2020 at the latest. In addition, the CGF asks companies
not to source soy from production on land with native forests, riparian vegetation, natural wetlands, steep
slopes and areas designated by law to serve the purpose of native conservation and/or cultural and social
protection or High Conservation Value (HCV).
Where feasible, members can directly verify their supply chain for deforestation-free soy (particularly forfarms and mills in the process of becoming certified). One approach is to map the soy supply chain to gaintransparency at the farm level, and then assess farms against these sourcing guidelines. Members should
ensure suppliers continuously monitor and verify their performance against these guidelines. Members should
also verify such monitoring and performance by independent assessments.
There are a range of verification mechanisms that may be used to reduce the risk of the sourcing of soy
contributing to deforestation in companies’ supply chains.
A. Using Standards and Certifications
The CGF encourages members to verify that the soy they are sourcing is deforestation-free. This can be done
through the use of standards and certifications. These standards are specified via a benchmarking of soystandards against the Retailers' Soy Group's (RSG) minimum criteria for responsible soy on the International
Trade Centre’s (ITC) Standards Map. The RSG defines as credible only those standards that meet the followingcriteria:•••

be transparent and have been developed through a recognised multi-stakeholder process;require third party audits by independently accredited certification bodies; andonly certify inputs that meet equivalent responsible production standards.

Standards, which are internationally applicable, that currently comply with RSG requirements are:••••Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS)
ProTerra
Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) Sustainable Agriculture Standard adopted by the Rainforest
Alliance
International Sustainability & Carbon Certification ISCC PLUS (ISCC 202) with voluntary add-ons
202-01 and 202-02.

Companies can use the above standards or equivalent to verify deforestation-free soy. Although these CGF
sourcing guidelines focus primarily on deforestation, other aspects are addressed by the above standards.
Please note that this list is not exhaustive, as other mechanisms exist that may be used to reduce the risk ofthe sourcing of soy contributing to deforestation.
In addition, CGF encourages its members to support collaborative initiatives like the Soy Moratorium in8Brazil, in which multiple supply chain, NGO and government actors work together to ensure that pledges toexclude Amazonian deforestation from soy supply chains originating in Brazil are enforced.
B. Verifying Legality
While deforestation-free soy is the priority, and companies should aim to implement measures to achieve
deforestation-free soy in their supply chains as soon as possible, the CGF realises that these guidelines applyto a broad range of companies with different levels of influence and varying complexity of supply chains.
Companies that are not yet able to achieve full coverage of deforestation-free standards should, asa minimum first step, exclude soy from illegally-deforested land in their supply chains. To movetowards deforestation-free soy supply chains, these companies should, by 2017, publish a timebound implementation plan to remove deforestation from their global soy supply chains by 2020.
This plan should be public and include intermediate KPIs against which companies should report.
In this way, excluding illegal-deforestation from a company’s supply chain can be seen as a steppingstone towards the goal of deforestation-free global soy supply chains.
A company may use the following standards to verify that soy from illegally deforested land is excluded fromits global supply chain. They support implementation of the Brazilian Forest Code (particularly registration withCAR) by all producers and sourcing of only Forest Code-compliant soy. These standards are specified via
a benchmarking of soy standards against the European Feed Manufacturers Federation (FEFAC) guidelines
on the International Trade Center’s (ITC) Standards Map. The full list of standards and certifications can befound here: http://www.standardsmap.org/fefac/.
It is recommended that member companies use the specified standards or equivalent to verify legal production.
Companies should require that the Soy Sourcing Guidelines and Standards apply to suppliers at a group level(including all operations and landholdings, joint ventures and third-party suppliers).

6. Transparency (for individual members)
Transparency is a valuable tool in progressing sustainability objectives. It is crucial for building trust amongcustomers, employees, investors and other stakeholders, as well as strengthening credibility. CGF members
are encouraged to support platforms, tools and initiatives that enable transparency through the supply chain.
It is recommended that members publicly disclose their soy sourcing policies, goals and progress. Members
are further encouraged to work with their supply chain partners to increase transparency in sourcing practices
and the use of deforestation-free soy in the supply chain of their products.

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7. KPIs (for the CGF Membership)
The goal for CGF members is to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020 through the sourcing ofsustainable commodities.
The KPIs in this section should provide an update on the status of the implementation of the Deforestation
Resolution and should focus on the behaviour the CGF wants to encourage.
The CGF are therefore suggesting the following KPIs:
1. Number of CGF members for which the sourcing of soy is relevant with a public commitment on
the sourcing of sustainable soy.
2. Number of CGF members for which the sourcing of soy is relevant that have published a timebound implementation plan.
3. Number of CGF members for which the sourcing of soy is relevant that publicly report annually on
progress towards meeting these guidelines.

8. Antitrust
All work of The Consumer Goods Forum is carried out in accordance with the CGF’s Antitrust Guidelines,
and in compliance with all competition laws, thus ensuring independence of activity, collaboration only on
non-competitively sensitive issues, and confidentiality of information.
Participating companies will undertake their own decisions on IF and HOW to implement theelements of this proposal in their individual supply chains.

109. Contact
For more information on the CGF's soy work and its environmental sustainability pillar, please contact:
Ignacio GavlianDirector, Environmental Sustainability
The Consumer Goods Forum(+33) 1 82 00 95 57
Debora DiasManager, Environmental Sustainability
The Consumer Goods Forum(+33) 1 82 00 95 87
sustainability@theconsumergoodsforum.com

11Annex 1:

The CGF Resolution on Deforestation (November 2010)“As the Board of The Consumer Goods Forum, we pledge to mobilise resources within our respective
businesses to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020.
We will achieve this both by individual company initiatives and by working collectively in partnership withgovernments and NGOs.
Together we will develop specific, time bound and cost effective action plans for the different challenges
in sourcing commodities like palm oil, soy, beef, paper and board in a sustainable fashion. We will
also work with other stakeholders – NGOs, Development Banks, Governments etc – to create funding
mechanisms and other practical schemes that will incentivise and assist forested countries to conserve theirnatural assets and enable them to achieve the goal of zero net deforestation, whilst at the same time meeting
their goals for economic development”.

12Annex 2:Definitions

Zero Net Deforestation:
The CGF follows the WWF definition of zero net deforestation:“Zero Net deforestation” can be distinguished from "zero deforestation", which means no deforestation
anywhere. "Zero net deforestation" acknowledges that some forest loss could be offset by forest
restoration.
Zero net deforestation is not synonymous with a total prohibition on forest clearing. Rather, it leaves room
for change in the configuration of the land-use mosaic, provided the net quantity, quality and carbon densityof forests is maintained. It recognizes that, in some circumstances, conversion of forests in one site may
contribute to the sustainable development and conservation of the wider landscape (e.g. reducing livestock
grazing in a protected area may require conversion of forest areas in the buffer zone to provide farmland
to local communities). However, zero net deforestation is not achieved through the conversion of primaryor natural forests into fast growing plantations. Such conversion would count as deforestation in assessing
progress against the target.

High Conservation Value (HCV) Areas:“High Conservation Value” areas refer to the areas necessary to maintain or enhance one or more High
Conservation Values (HCV), where a HCV is a biological, ecological, social or cultural value of outstanding
significance or critical importance. More detail is available through the High Conservation Value Resource
Network via www.hcvnetwork.org.

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The Sustainable Soy Sourcing
Guidelines are built on a global
industry’s commitment to achieve
zero net deforestation by 2020.
It’s time to source sustainably!
www.tcgfsustainability.com(C) 2016 The Consumer Goods Forum.
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