RSPO to introduce “Shared Responsibility” to new P&C (Principles & Criteria)

The Principles and Criteria (P&C) Review process has started in April 2017, in line with the 5-year review cycle and is now available for the 2nd public consultation in June and July 2018 (https://www.rspo.org/principles-and-criteria-review/2nd-public-consultation-rspo-principles-and-criteria).  In this restructuring an objective is the “Integration of concept of shared responsibility (i.e. indication of requirements applicable that may become applicable to other RSPO membership categories as well)”.  These pertain to Transparency, Ethical Conduct, Legality, Human Rights Respected, Workers Rights and Conditions, Energy Use and GHG emissions.

 Table 1: Overview of Restructured Outcome Focused P&Cs – darker shaded are proposed SHARED requirements - click here

AOMG Advisor K S Qua commented, “We welcome any initiative that will increase the physical uptake of RSPO certified PO and PKO through our plants. Whilst it is unclear at the moment how the ‘shared responsibility’ will be implemented we must adhere to the original principle that unnecessary costs should not be added in the process. As the margins in refinery and oleochemicals are very thin it has always been imperative that our operations are as efficient as possible in terms of energy use and emissions. Process safety and integrity is also a given as we cannot afford any outages in our high capacity and capex plants. So I am surprised to see Occupational Health and Safety omitted.”

Any costs that do not go to reward the farmers should be minimized. We should not add to the current administration and segregation costs to process RSPO certified PO and PKO.  Additional costs may be detrimental to the physical uptake of RSPO certified PO and PKO. Since 2013 the flow of physical certified RSPO PO and PKO through the manufacturing facilities of AOMG members has been steadily growing and its members in fully supporting RSPO are committed to continue this growth.