By Chermaine Yap
Our recent clinching of 12 PROPER Green Award during the 2019 Award ceremony in Jakarta showed efforts to ensure our operations commit to best management and operational practices, going beyond regulatory standards in whatever we do.
Established in 1995, the Program Penilaian Peringkat Kinerja Perusahaan dalam Pengelolaan Lingkungan Hidup (PROPER) awards was set up in a bid to improve transparency to ensure legal compliance. World Bank, United States – Asia Environmental Partnership (USAEP) / United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported this initiative, together with the Indonesian Government and Environmental Impact Agency (BAPEDAL).
It is a public disclosure program for companies on pollution and follows a simple rating system that shows companies’ performance against regulatory standards. Public disclosure is effective as pressure from external agents can motivate firms to cut emissions level, especially so if a company is reputationally sensitive.
With increasing expectation from NGOs and the public for companies to be transparent and accountable for their actions, it would serve the private sector well to disclose any public certification of good or bad performance evaluation. The impact and success of using public disclosure as a way to communicate on environmental achievement and compliance proved to be useful, with the average compliance rate being close to 30% in 1995 and increasing to a high of 70% by 2011(1).
As one of the leaders in Sustainability within the Palm Oil industry, Musim Mas prides itself on going beyond compliance – from Blue to Green. This year, we worked hard in preparing PT Unggul Lestari as a potential candidate for the PROPER Green Award and succeeded in taking home 12 Green PROPER Awards for PROPER 2019.
Musim Mas has long found that the key to ensuring the long-term viability of our business is to strive to go above and beyond the regulatory requirements in whatever we do, ensuring we stay competitive and pave the way in making sustainable progress within the Palm Oil industry.
(1) Environmental Regulation And Public Disclosure: The Case of PROPER in Indonesia, 1st Edition, by Shakeb Afsah, Allen Blackman, Jorge H. Garcia, Thomas Sterner
