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The relevant RSPO case trackers which are related to:

  • Henrison Inti Persada (HIP) can be found here.
Date Progress
July 2016 As part of the internal monitoring of suppliers’ grievances, we had engaged with Noble since July 2016 to clarify news from the media stating that Noble violates HSBC’s Forestry policy.

The policy, which pledges not to knowingly provide financial services to “prohibited business” and defines it those involving “forests being converted to Plantation or to non-forest use (deforestation). Noble and HSBC are RSPO members and must adhere to the RSPO Code of Conduct.

Noble referred us to their compliance of RSPO procedures and processes such as RSPO New Planting Procedure (NPP), submission of Annual Communication of Progress (ACOP) and the closure of the Henrison Inti Persada complaint case by the RSPO Complaints Panel. Noble has also completed the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification process for one of their mills.
December 2016 Our last purchase was in December 2016.
January 2017

 Chain Reaction Research (CRR) released a report titled, “Noble Group: Cost of Capital and Deforestation Risks under Priced?“. The report indicated that Noble’s financial loss and its Palm Oil Plantation was suffering due to both potential weak High Conservation Value (HCV) assessments and poor RSPO compliance.

The report alleged that Noble Group’s subsidiaries, Henrison Inti Persada (HIP) and Pusaka Agro Lestari (PAL) were deforesting and clearing potential peatlands up to Q2 2016, in violation of it’s the sustainability policies of its bankers i.e. HSBC, ING Bank, Morgan Stanley, Société Générale, ABN Amro Bank and Rabobank.
17 January 2017:

Greenpeace released a report titled, “Dirty Bankers – How HSBC is Financing Forest Destruction for Palm Oil “. The report stated that in recent years, HSBC has begun or maintained a financial relationship (including providing or arranging loans) with companies and groups operating Palm Oil concessions in Indonesia associated with the most unsustainable aspects of Palm Oil development.

The report also alleged that both Noble Group’s subsidiaries, Henrison Inti Persada (HIP) and Pusaka Agro Lestari (PAL) deforested and cleared HCV forest and had significant social conflict.
January – April 2017 We met with Noble to discuss the actions required to address the outstanding concerns on issues related to No Deforestation. We had an intense discussion with Noble on High Carbon Stock (HCSA) and peat management for its Plantation operations.

The following matters were discussed:

  • Transparency around HCV/HCS process and further clarification around their sustainability policy (given the reference to HCSA);
  • We encouraged Noble to make its sustainability documents publicly available including HCS/HCV initiatives
  • We asked Noble to follow due process on HCS as well in terms of HCSA review by HCSA panel and have a moratorium, while this process is ongoing
  • Further engagements will include a workshop and a site assessment.

We have suggested to Noble to publicly announce its implementation of HCV and HCS and also update the HCS study.
June 2017 We will continue to engage Noble and will review our trading relationship with Noble to further encourage its commitment to sustainability goals.
July 2017 We met with Noble and sought further clarification on the progress of its sustainability initiatives in its operations as outlined here.
December 2018 We will continue engaging with Noble to follow up on their progress.
January 2018 We consider the case closed.
September 2020 29 September 2020:

RSPO issued a public censure against Noble Plantations Pte Ltd and terminates its membership, for withdrawing its membership while an active complaint was pending against the company. The announcement can be found here.