Suppliers and contractors

Suppliers and contractors to the Group are bound by its policies. This applies to ‘scheme smallholders’ attached to the Group’s projects as well as other vendors of goods and services.

Group policies cover not only quality criteria for what it buys, but also sustainability standards regarding human rights and environmental protection. All suppliers and contractors are required to respect internationally recognised human rights, including labour rights, community rights, and the legal and customary rights of indigenous people. The Group’s suppliers must comply with the UK Modern Slavery Act, pay all employees a wage equal to or exceeding the local legal minimum wage, and adhere to the health and safety requirements of the country in which the supplier operates. From an environmental perspective, our suppliers must abide by Indonesia’s zero-burning policy and the requirement to produce a social and environmental impact assessment before developing land. There must be no new plantings on high conservation value areas, high carbon stock forest, or other natural ecosystems, including peatland of any depth. Group suppliers are required to have subscribed to industry good agricultural practices (GAP) for soils including peat, such as not degrading soils further, minimising erosion, as well as conserving soils whenever possible. They must comply with the Stockholm and Rotterdam conventions on hazardous chemicals and organic pollutants, as well as generally minimise the usage of chemical pesticides and fertilisers.

Suppliers or vendors that are found to violate our policies will likely result in suspension of the contract for a period of six months during which they must take agreed steps to bring them in line with Group policies, which may include a robust plan to restore natural ecosystems lost or compensation for non-compliant clearing after November 2005, referring to the RSPO Remediation and Compensation Procedure as a guide. The Group will not source goods or services from suppliers who fail to comply with this requirement.

Updated September 2024