Sime Darby Plantation

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its regular and ongoing engagement activities with its stakeholders, which include customers, employees, civil society organisations and industry groups. It also discloses the engagement channels and frequencies, for each stakeholder group.

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts and the outcomes in relation to its sustainability strategy. Material topics are determined through a materiality assessment, involving engagement with stakeholders, internal reviews, and consultations. These material topics are validated by the sustainability team and approved by the sustainability committee and the board of directors.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company is committed to reducing both its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and has set time-bound targets to achieve this. It also reports progress against these targets. Similarly, the company is working towards reducing its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, has established time-bound reduction targets and reports progress against these targets.

Ecosystem conversion
The company’s conversion-free target covers all its high-risk commodities, and it discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains. The company also discloses the proportion of high-risk commodities which are conversion-free.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses activities aimed at improving soil health and agrobiodiversity in its production and sourcing practices. These activities include participation in land-use planning with landowners and the conduct of training programs on intercropping and sound agricultural practices.

Water withdrawal
The company demonstrates reducing water withdrawal by about 3% in its own operations in fiscal year 2021 compared to a year earlier.

Workforce nutrition
The company has provided dedicated breastfeeding spaces and breaks for its nursing employees.

Child labour
The company has collaborated with relevant stakeholders to implement suitable remedies in case any children are found working at its plantations. As part of these efforts, the company provides free primary and secondary education to all school-age children at its plantations, ensuring regular school attendance.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company demonstrates that it has in place pricing practices that contribute to a living income for smallholder farmers in its palm oil supply chain. Additionally, it describes how it supports them through capacity building initiatives that help them to obtain certifications and achieve higher yields in order to improve their market access.

Forced labour
The company prohibits the payment of any recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job. It also does not retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement in its supply chain.

Land rights
The company is committed to upholding the rights of ownership and responsible use of land and natural resources, including legitimate tenure rights. In order to ensure this, the company expects its business relationships to establish a proper procedure to identify legitimate tenure rights holders. This process should prioritize vulnerable or marginalized tenure rights holders and engage in negotiations with them to ensure fair and adequate compensation.

Act ethically
The company discloses a public commitment to protect personal data. Furthermore, it has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and incorporates anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses into its contracts with direct business relationships. Additionally, it offers a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. Moreover, the company specifies that it does not make political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. Additionally, it pays a living wage in alignment with RSPO guidance on living wage provisions, and states that all overtime work must be consensual and paid at a premium rate. Moreover, it discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. It also reports a 30% female representation on the board.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO fundamental rights at work in its operations and supply chain. Additionally, it outlines its process for identifying human rights risks and impacts within its operations and supply chain. It also elaborates on its methods for assessing these risks, discloses its salient human rights issues, and provides a case study illustrating how it has addressed a salient human rights risk. Moreover, the company indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has an opportunity to link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover environmental and social issues. Furthermore, it could disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Furthermore, it could provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets and report any potential misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainable development strategy
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and ecosystem conversion but could establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. While it reports qualitative progress against all its targets, it has an opportunity to disclose quantitative information regarding its current status.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has the opportunity to align its scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to set time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

Fertiliser and pesticide use
While the company discloses that it aims to minimise the use of chemicals, it has an opportunity to disclose targets to optimise the use of fertilisers and minimise the use of pesticides in its production and/or sourcing practices and report progress against the targets.

Plastic use and packaging waste
While the company describes its activities to reduce plastic use and transition towards sustainable packaging, it has an opportunity to disclose the associated quantitative data.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Water withdrawal
The company has the opportunity to declare a time-bound target for reducing water withdrawal within its own operations and track and report progress towards achieving that target. Additionally, the company can disclose the amount of water it withdraws for its own operations in water-stressed areas. Furthermore, the company can actively engage with its suppliers to minimise water withdrawal.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate how it is improving the nutritional quality of its products and to set targets to increase the share of more nutritious products in its portfolio.

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate that 100% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme/certification programme or other widely recognised industry-specific certification. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of food suppliers that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Workforce nutrition
While the company has health and well-being promotion programs for its employees, it has an opportunity to enhance the program by incorporating nutrition-focused health checks or nutrition education. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to implement a programme to offer healthy food options to its employees.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it could require them to have an age-verification system in place.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has set up initiatives to support farmers in adopting climate-smart agriculture approaches but it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it improves farmers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it could demonstrate how it identifies living income benchmarks and assesses living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Forced labour
The company could disclose a policy that prohibits the payment of recruitment fees or related costs for job placement, as well as preventing the retention of workers’ personal documents or restricting their freedom of movement in its operations. Moreover, the company has conducted an evaluation of its labour practices at is operations in Malaysia which includes an assessment of forced labour indicators, as well as measures to address issues such as document retention and movement restrictions. However, the company has not provided evidence of its efforts to address these issues within its supply chain.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company has an opportunity to recognise and assess the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers. Furthermore, it could provide evidence of support activities that improve the health and safety of vulnerable groups.

Living wage
The company has an opportunity to set a target for paying a living wage across its direct suppliers and describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it sources. Also, it could disclose the percentage of workers across its own operations or suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
The company conducts risk assessments focusing on various areas, including corruption. However, there is an opportunity to elaborate on the process for identifying bribery and corruption risks and their impacts within its operations. Additionally, while the company outlines its approach to personal political activities, there is an opportunity to articulate its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy statement. The company could also consider disclosing its expenditures on lobbying activities.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company has a public policy statement on health and safety, it has an opportunity to use stronger language to demonstrate its commitment to health and safety. Additionally, despite the company stating that it has the right to audit vendors and verify compliance, the company could mention that it actively monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers and disclose the methods used for doing so.

Furthermore, the company could disclose how it determines living wages in its operational regions. While the company has set expectations for the wages paid by its suppliers, it could add a requirement for them to pay a living wage and disclose how it supports such payments.

Moreover, while the company promotes gender equality and has implemented initiatives toward this goal, it could explicitly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment in a public policy document. It could further disclose time-bound targets and report information, including gender pay ratios.

Respect human rights
While the company discloses efforts to prevent, mitigate, or remediate its salient human rights issues, it could also describe a global system and how it applies to its supply chain.