Singapore – Musim Mas (or “the Group”) is pleased to announce the publication of its Progress Report on the Musim Mas Sustainability Policy for 2016. The bi-annual report provides an update on the implementation of its policy, documenting the significant developments within its operations and its work on third-party supplying mills.
One of the policy milestones in 2016 was a labour audit on Musim Mas’ plantations in Indonesia. Musim Mas went through a social compliance assessment by labour non-profit Verite, aiming to identify the issues related to compliance with the (Palm Oil Innovation Group) POIG Charter, RSPO Principles and Criteria, Verite Best Practice Standards, International Labour Organisation (ILO) and other international norms on worker protection. This forms part of an initial social compliance assessment for Musim Mas’ entry to POIG.
The Group has also launched a revised grievance mechanism. The mechanism aims to address grievances related to the Musim Mas Group and its subsidiaries’ operations or to third-party suppliers.
Notably, 2016 was also the year in which the Group needed to report on its status of achieving full traceability to plantations. The Group can determine 99% of its supply base to the mill level and trace 48% of its supply base to plantations that have associated mills. Going forward, Musim Mas will work on mapping the independent plantations and independent Smallholders who supply to a variety of mills in each supply shed with the help of satellite imagery providers, to achieve full traceability.
The outcome of Musim Mas’ mill verifications is distilled into a set of recommendations: mill-level interventions that can be led by respective mills, mill-level interventions that can be led by Musim Mas and landscape-level interventions that will need support from other stakeholders such as local governments, civil society and the private sector.
Dr. Petra Meekers, Musim Mas Director of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Sustainable Development, said “2016 was a year of intensifying our insight into our supply base and getting clarity on the steps to achieve transformation. We worked hard to translate our policy commitments into action plans and measurable progress, especially on persuading the supplying Plantation groups with their network of mills and associated plantations to implement sustainable practices. Going forward, we will call upon our peers and other stakeholders in the industry to work towards transformation in a similar manner.”
For more information, please contact:
Carolyn Lim
Corporate Communications
media@musimmas.com
+65 6576 4770
