We do not use palm oil as such.

However, we would like to be maximally transparent here:

There are ingredients like GLYCERYL CAPRYLATE, CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE or ASCORBYL PALMITATE that are also based on palm oil.

"For the above ingredients GLYCERYL CAPRYLATE, CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE and ASCORBYL PALMITATE, our laboratory has confirmed that cold-pressed palm oil is used as the starting material to produce the palm oil derivatives."

Palm oil as an ingredient is not fundamentally bad and not even the problem - it is a natural substance!

But the advantage of the natural raw material, unfortunately becomes a disadvantage in the overall context: the production of the oil is extremely cheap, the processing easy. That's why palm oil is in such high demand in industry. To gain space for the cultivation of the oil palm, huge areas of rainforest - the lungs of the world - are therefore cleared. On one hand, the frequently used slash-and-burn method releases a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere. On the other hand, palm oil production results in the annual loss of large parts of the rainforest that is so important for the ecosystem - and thus also the habitat for numerous animal species.

Minimal amounts of palm oil or palm oil-based ingredients may be present in our UND GRETEL products. Now, you might still think that completely eliminating palm oil from cosmetics would be the solution. But even the environmental initiative WWF does not see this as a solution to the riddle: a complete renunciation of the ingredient would only have the effect of shifting the problem.

Unfortunately, the only solution that helps is as harsh as it is clear: Reduce! Because raw materials and resources are scarce. That is the honest answer. We cannot renounce to the all-important fatty acids in our products - but we take strict care to use sustainable palm oil. We at UND GRETEL have faced this entire challenge and found the following solutions:

No. 1: We from UND GRETEL are part of the Round Table of Sustainability.

In order to make the production of palm oil more sustainable, WWF initiated the 'Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil' (RSPO) in 2004 together with other stakeholders from the entire palm oil supply chain. Membership is voluntary. The aim of the initiative is to establish higher standards for nature conservation and human rights on plantations. A concrete example: for every tree that is felled for cultivation, a new tree is planted elsewhere. So the palm oil we use as the basis for our ingredients is good: it is sustainable and produced under fair conditions!

No. 2: The minimalist principle - UND GRETEL mixability

From the very beginning, we at UND GRETEL focused on minimalism. Reduced products that can be used multifunctionally. Because fewer products also mean: less packaging, less production, less waste, less environmental impact. You can find more information about environmental organizations here:

If you are interested in this topic, you can read our blog post: - The palm oil problem in cosmetics - 3 facts you should know!