[GRI 2-3, 2-5, 2-14, 3-1, 3-2]
Report Design and Theme
As a key player in the palm oil industry, Sime Darby Plantation Berhad (SDP) is committed to operating responsibly and leading by example. Since 2015, we have strived to meet and exceed our No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments. In the last two years, we have continued to make substantial investments addressing deforestation in our supply chain and supporting suppliers in meeting industry requirements. We also recognise our role in addressing the climate crisis and are taking further steps to minimise our carbon footprint and launch a roadmap to net zero.
No Deforestation
No Peat
No Exploitation
Most importantly, the ‘S’ in our Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies and the ‘No Exploitation’ in our NDPE commitments have taken on greater significance. Thus, we continue to invest in our people. SDP recognises the impact of our activities on our people and our people’s effect upon us. The events of 2020 and 2021 have magnified the importance of this interrelationship, and thus, as a result, we have bolstered our commitment to social standards.
On 28 January 2022, SDP was issued a Notice of Forced Labour Finding by the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency, following a Withhold Release Order (WRO) issued on 30 December 2020. We are working with internal stakeholders and independent experts to conduct assessments on the ground, to address any gaps and, where necessary, implement important new policies, structures and processes in order to continuously improve. We are grateful for the steadfast support of our people across all SDP operations, and our partners.
At the same time, thousands of our employees, community members and partners are impacted by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.
Recognising our responsibility to our people, SDP has strived to ensure the well-being of our employees. The crisis has heightened our awareness of the importance of keeping our workers and their families safe and well-informed whilst ensuring business continuity. Therefore, no employees have been laid off. We have redoubled our efforts to make their well-being our top priority, including supporting government initiatives to establish vaccination centres and promoting vaccination drives across our operations to ensure our workers and communities are protected.
We continue to support the many people and communities impacted by the December 2021 floods in Malaysia.
This tragedy was another poignant reminder that SDP – like all responsible palm oil sector operators – must recognise that our relief efforts are not a temporary response to an immediate crisis but an ongoing commitment to building back what was lost and restoring communities to their full potential in the face of increasing threats of climate change.
Leading Sustainably, Living Sustainably
This report, themed ‘Leading Sustainably, Living Sustainably’, demonstrates our commitment to raise our own standards and seek solutions that will help raise the bar across the industry. We drive responsible production beyond our own boundaries in response to climate change and to contribute to a better society. We adopt leading standards and assist our supply chain through the same journey. We uphold our social, cultural, and environmental obligations and go beyond compliance and operational necessities.
This is SDP’s third sustainability report, detailing our sustainability performance and progress for the calendar years 2020 and 2021. Given the timing of this report, we have also incorporated significant 2022 milestones. This report is prepared using the latest Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. We have also drawn from industry platforms to which we belong and requirements from leading benchmarks and assessment organisations, including the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Zoological Society of London’s Sustainability Policy Transparency Toolkit (ZSL SPOTT). This report is intended to be read in conjunction with our Annual Report and sustainability-related disclosure on the Sime Darby Plantation website (upstream and Group) and Sime Darby Oils Dashboard. Moving forward, we will look to further improve our disclosures annually to report on our sustainability progress.
Throughout this report, we have included GRI disclosures under headings or sub-headings formatted as GRI XXX-XX. A TCFD icon appears at the top of relevant sections to indicate topics that highlight our current measures inline with the TCFD framework.
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Report Scope And Boundaries
This report covers SDP-owned palm oil businesses;
Our Global Upstream
And Downstream Operations
Our Research
And Development Arm
Our Renewable
Energy Businesses
Specifically, our upstream operations cover our various subsidiaries in Malaysia, our Minamas operations in Indonesia, and New Britain Palm Oil Limited (NBPOL) operations in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Our downstream operations are spread worldwide under the Sime Darby Oils (SDO) banner. The report does not cover our partially-owned businesses. Unless otherwise stated, it also does not cover our non-palm oil commodities, which make up a small segment of our total business. However, should these businesses become material and of interest to our stakeholders, we shall consider reporting in our Sustainability Report moving forward.
Unless otherwise stated, the data presented in this report dates from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021 and is augmented with historical data where relevant. Data in this report covers all our upstream operations during this reporting period. Downstream operations data is also covered within the scope of this report, except for production and operational data. The report also includes human resource data on people employed at our research centres and satellite offices worldwide.
This report covers the material issues that have the greatest impact on SDP and our stakeholders. We continuously review these topics through stakeholder discussions and the implementation of our sustainability-related strategies and plans.
Assurance
We have not engaged in third-party assurance for the information in this report as we believe that our multiple certification audits lend credibility on the performance data we present to our stakeholders. However, we will consider engaging external assurance in future reporting in line with our commitment to building trust through transparency.
Stakeholder review
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Malaysia was engaged to review the disclosures in this report within the context of seeking TCFD advisory support in 2021 and 2022. The scope of the PwC review included feedback on disclosure improvements and TCFD alignment. TCFD gaps identified have been addressed, where possible; where possible, and remaining gaps will be addressed as part of our upcoming climate action strategy.
