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Quick Facts
- NBPOL has spearheaded an international organisation seeking to improve the sustainability credentials of the Palm Oil Industry, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (www.RSPO.org)
- NBPOL is an executive member of the RSPO
- Dr. Simon Lord, head of research at NBPOL is vice President of the RSPO
- The RSPO has over 260 members representing producers, consumers, the food and chemical industry and 12 NGO organisations
- NBPOL is in a very rare position in the palm oil industry because it has control over its harvesting, milling, refining, transportation and shipping, hence it can trace individual shipments to the EU back to source, vital to proving the sustainability of its oil
RSPO
The Directors of NBPOL are acutely aware of the need to maintain the highest level of sustainability credentials practically possible and believe that NBPOL's attention to this key aspect of the business is both a strength and a differentiating factor. NBPOL has been certified to the only standard issued by the International Standards Organisation ("ISO") related to environmental management, known as ISO 14001, which relates to what the Company does to:
- minimise harmful effects on the environment caused by the Company's activities; and
- achieve continual improvement of its environmental performance.
ISO 14001 is a general environmental standard applicable to a wide range of organisations and is followed by nearly one million organisations across 161 countries. However, NBPOL wanted to exceed these standards and achieve certification to a new standard specifically related to the sustainability of the palm oil industry. To this end, NBPOL is an Executive Board Member of an industry group known as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil ("RSPO"). The RSPO comprises approximately 160 organisations representing growers, buyers, and 12 non-governmental organisations ("NGOs"). Its aim is to "promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil", and to develop a specific set of criteria against which companies can be assessed and accredited. Dr Simon Lord, the head of research at NBPOL is currently Vice President of the RSPO.
A pre-audit of the Group's operations against RSPO criteria was undertaken in July 2007 by an independent qualified auditor and NBPOL believes it could become one of the first plantation companies certified to the new RSPO standard.
The NBPOL group is a fully integrated business: it controls and produces its own seed; plants its own land; harvests, mills, processes, and refines its own product; and contracts directly with its end customers in the EU. This integrated model allows NBPOL oil products to be fully traceable back to source by its customers. NBPOL believes it is this level of control which gives us the ability to address the sustainability issue across the entire production and supply chain. By investing in its sustainability credentials, NBPOL believes that the it is well placed to benefit from any future sustainability related legislative or incentive environment which may impact the palm oil industry.
Download - NBPOL Sustainability Handbook Ver 2 - 17 03 08.pdf
PDF Format, 124KB
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