Sustainable palm oil
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (“RSPO”) is a non-governmental alliance that has developed a set of environmental and social criteria with which companies must comply in order to produce Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO). Properly applied, the RSPO criteria can help to minimise the negative impact of palm oil cultivation on the environment and communities in palm oil-producing regions.
The RSPO has more than 4,000 members drawn from all parts of the palm oil industry:
- Producers (such as M.P. Evans)
- Palm-oil processors
- Traders
- Consumer goods manufacturers
- Food retailers
- Financial institutions
- Environmental and social organisations.
In 2020, approximately 20% of world palm-oil production was certified sustainable. Less than half of this was bought as sustainably-produced oil.
M.P. Evans is a producer of sustainable Indonesian palm oil
All M.P. Evans’ palm-oil estates, whether they have a mill or not, are run in accordance with the RSPO’s standards. This is the same for all ‘scheme smallholder’ areas attached to the Group’s projects.
The RSPO certifies palm-oil mills, not estates. Naturally, whilst we develop new land in strict accordance with RSPO standards, constructing a mill, and hence RSPO certification, comes at the end of the plantation development phase. Whilst the Group is growing there will always be a short time lag between first producing crop and achieving RSPO certification.
The Group’s policy is for all its mills to be certified by the RSPO with any new mills achieving RSPO certification within 18 months of commencing operation. Three of the Group’s five operational mills are certified. The other two were commissioned in 2020 and 2021 and the Group aims to meet its published aim to certify them within 18 months.
Sustainability report
Read about our focus on the environment, sustainable palm-oil production and social impact.
