Socfin Group

“The occupational health and safety system is based on OHSAS 18001, while the labour and human rights policies are based on the standards set out in the SA 8000 guidelines, the RSPO principles and criteria, ILO conventions and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Group strictly commits to freedom of association and non-discrimination, bans forced and child labour, and furthermore guarantees fair pay and decent housing to its employees. [...] Socfin also strengthened its commitment towards transparency by putting a “transparency dashboard” online. Likewise, its code of conduct, updated in 2017, was split in 2 different codes: a “code for employee and business conduct” and a “code for suppliers”. The two codes, together with the new “whistle-blower” protection policy, will be implemented during the year 2018.”

Translation - "Through this policy, the Socfin Group commits to implementing best management practices and particularly to: ...• facilitating smallholder inclusion; • guaranteeing fair and transparent price negotiations with smallholders; • continuously improving its agricultural practices aimed at achieving higher yields.” [...] “Smallholders are trained in the sector’s « good agricultural practices » and consequently show greater respect for the environment and soils, resulting in higher soil productivity. In this way, smallholders achieve a yield similar to agro-industrial plantations (sometimes even 10 times higher).“

"The HCS approach is developed to be used together with and as a part of other land management and conservation strategies, such as Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), protection of peat lands, buffer zones along watercourses, HCV (High Conservation Value) areas, and areas of high cultural or economic importance to the local communities or indigenous populations."

"Socfin Group’s Responsible Management Policy and this Grievance Management Procedure apply to all worldwide operations and all third-party suppliers. [...] Translation - “With their support, we have also formalized our external complaints management procedure. This procedure is available online just like the external complaints recorded and their follow-up.As of December 31, 2019, 4 of the 6 complaints registered had been closed and 2 were under investigation. This joint management of complaints and the board guarantees visitors neutral information and transparent.”

In their 2019 ACOP, Socfin report that they used 194,892.07 tons of palm oil, of which 166,660.56 tons were RSPO-certified. They also used 33,104 tons of palm kernel oil, of which 100% was RSPO-certified. This gives a total palm oil/palm oil derivative use of 227,996.07 tons, of which 199,764.56 were RSPO-certified (87.6%)

“High Carbon Stock approach Since July 2016, the Socfin Group recognizes and implements the High Carbon Stock (HCS) approach as defined by the HCS Approach Steering Group and the HCS toolkit. The HCS approach is developed to be used together with and as a part of other land management and conservation strategies [...] “Concretely, during a development project, environmental and social impact studies are always carried out. They include management plans, environmental and social, mitigation measures impacts, a community development plan and a stakeholder engagement plan; the whole forming an integral part of the agreed occupancy contract with the state and communities.”

"Voluntary compliance with other standards Following the Socfin Group policies on “quality” and “responsible management”, all plantation companies must obtain certification for their management systems to ensure their compliance with national and international environmental and social performance indicators. The systems are locally managed and are not systematically audited by the head office, but by thirdparty certification bodies such as Bureau Veritas, in order to give more responsibility to local managers.”