01/05/2008 (Forbes) - Unilever NV said it will aim to ensure the palm oil it uses comes from certified sustainable sources by 2015.

The Anglo-Dutch agri-food and cosmetics group said it will begin using sustainable palm oil in the second half of 2008, when it becomes available, and has set itself a target to be able to trace the origin of all its palm oil used in Europe by 2012.

Last week, dozens of Greenpeace campaigners demonstrated at Unilever sites in the UK and the Netherlands, criticising the company's role in the destruction of rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia to convert the land to oil palm plantations. Palm (nasdaq: PALM - news - people ) oil is used mostly in the manufacture of cosmetics.

Greenpeace accused Unilever, which owns the cosmetic brands Dove and Sunlight soap, of contributing through its mass consumption of palm oil to the destruction of rainforests in Kalimantan province, in the Indonesian part of Borneo.

Indonesia is expected in 2008 to overtake Malaysia, which until now has been the world's largest producer of palm oil, because of a big increase in the surface area given over to oil palm plantations. Indonesia and Malaysia combined produce 85 percent of the world's supply of palm oil.