Planet over Profit | Friends of the Earth

Our world's natural resources are being exploited to make countless everyday products, from chicken produced by soy-fed animals to soaps made with palm oil. Many companies involved in these global supply chains are wreaking havoc on our planet’s life support systems.

And this environmental destruction comes hand in hand with human rights abuses, particularly for people in poorer countries. These communities bear the brunt of deforestation, land grabbing and displacement, while global corporations reap the profits.

While many of us are conscious about the choices we make, shady practices from businesses behaving badly make it hard to see the impact of what we buy. But they must be held accountable for any damage they cause.

That’s why, together with the Corporate Justice Coalition, we're part of the Good Business Matters campaign, calling for a new UK law that requires companies to avoid harm to people and planet in their supply chains.

Demand a new UK law

Products harming people and planet

Orangutan hiding among the trees in Indonesian tropical forest

Timber and wood products

Logging for wood products is the third largest cause of tropical deforestation. Find out how UK imports are harming forests and their communities, and how we can fight for sustainable timber and more trees.

Timber and wood products

Palm oil

Palm oil plantations ravage rainforests and peatlands, and cause catastrophic fires and land conflicts. Find out how UK companies are driving unethical palm oil, and how to protect threatened habitats and people.

Palm oil

Two tractors clearing the soil for soy farming in Brazil, generating lots of dust over barren land

Soy

Soy grown for animal feed has taken over great swathes of previously forested land. Find out how it's harming habitats and communities here and abroad, and how food production and farming can be done sustainably.

Soy

A number of workers sat at sewing machines in a clothing factory

Fast fashion

Fast fashion's profit-over-quality model harms our planet and exploits workers. Find out how well-known brands are linked to unethical supply chains, and how to be sustainable while still looking stylish.

Fast fashion

Make companies accountable for the damage they cause

Demand a new UK law

How we're campaigning for change

Two Indigenous leaders at the Tate Modern, one giving a speech, the other holding a photo of deforestation

Indigenous leaders from Sarawak visited the UK to demand an end to Malaysian timber greenwashing. Together we staged a dramatic rainforest funeral in Tate Modern, before delivering letters to the UK government and King Charles.

Volunteer gathering petition signatures from two concert goers, while another volunteer in an orangutan costume holds a selfie placard that reads "I support a new law on business, human rights and the environment"

Manchester Friends of the Earth ran a stall at 4 Coldplay gigs, engaging concert-goers in the campaign. Volunteers added around 800 signatures to our petition and profiled our coalition partners through powerful images of deforestation and resistance.

Person at a demonstration holding a placard that reads "Unilever, stop buying conflict palm oil"

Alongside young activists from Friends of the Earth Netherlands and our Climate. Youth. Society. programme, we attended Unilever's AGM to ask the board how it’s ensuring its supply chains are free from environmental and human rights abuses.

Demonstrators holding a banner that reads "People and planet over power and profit" and other placards

With allies in Indonesia and the Netherlands, we demonstrated at Unilever’s headquarters and Merseyside factory and delivered letters from Indigenous Peoples, calling on Unilever to stop buying conflict palm oil. The community in Kabuyu, Indonesia also held a protest.

Group members at a march holding a banner and sign reading "Clean Up the Tropical Timber Trade"

International campaign Clean Up the Tropical Timber Trade (CUT), of which Friends of the Earth is a member, took part in the biodiversity march at Extinction Rebellion's The Big One. CUT is calling on the UK to suspend imports of unsustainable timber from Malaysia.

A young man wearing straw hat holding his fist in the air. He is standing among beautiful nature, alone.

Our allies at WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia) have been pioneering community forest management for decades. This involves promoting land rights and community control of natural resources, with 1.1 million hectares of forest protected.

A group of people on a lawn all holding signs saying Stop the SLAPP

Timber giant Samling has bowed to international pressure and withdrawn its defamation lawsuit against campaigners SAVE Rivers, who’d been highlighting Samling’s logging of Indigenous lands and primary rainforest without consent. Friends of the Earth joined the #StoptheSLAPP campaign opposing Samling's bullying tactics to silence protest.