Summary
Sustainability certifications have rapidly gained prominence and become standards across many industries, yet knowledge about the potential unintended consequences of their criteria remains limited. Here, we use European Space Agency multispectral imagery satellite data in combination with economic and location data to investigate whether the certification process for palm oil production results in unintended consequences. Our results indicate decreases in plantation efficiency both prior to and following the certification obtainment. Our findings highlight the importance of considering possible unintended consequences of sustainability certifications beyond their immediate goals and criteria.
A commentary that raises methodological concerns about this study is available on Evidensia: “Methodological concerns regarding RSPO certification and plantation efficiency in Malaysia. A commentary on ‘Sustainable palm oil certification inadvertently affects production efficiency in Malaysia’ (Zachlod et al. 2025)”. This commentary has been submitted as a Matters Arising to Communications Earth & Environment (Nature) and is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).