Wilmar is committed to contributing to the local communities in which it operates by providing opportunities for residents to carve a livelihood for themselves to raise their economic and social well-being.

Wilmar’s efforts in the larger communities include programmes to promote the health and welfare of the resident population. We are committed to making improvements to the physical environment such as construction of roads, bridges and places of worship as well as providing necessary funds for their repairs and upkeep.

Believing that the education of children is necessary for the progress of the community, we have built schools and have also subsidised the recruitment of teachers for schools in the area. For our plantation workers, Wilmar provides infrastructure and amenities such as polyclinics, community halls, crèches, schools, places of worship and recreational facilities.

As a participant of the Plasma programme, a project designed to assist small landholders to become independent plantation growers in Indonesia, Wilmar helps the small landholders to develop good quality palm plantations and work closely with them to ensure that the plantations are efficiently managed. Wilmar is also committed to purchase all the fresh fruit bunches produced by them.

We are constantly seeking to improve on our greenhouse gas emissions. Several of our mills are on track to reduce methane emissions from anaerobic palm oil effluent ponds by trapping the gas and flaring it and in the near future, utilising it for power generation.

Waste products such as palm kernel shells, mill fibre and empty fruit bunches are used for power generation using co-generation plants to produce steam and electricity, thus reducing fossil fuel usage, 3 such projects are already registered with the UNFCC.

Formally established under article 60 of the Swiss Civil Code in 2004, the principal objective of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), is “to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil through co-operation within the supply chain and open dialogue with its stakeholders”.

The RSPO has members representing oil palm growers, palm oil processors and traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environment / nature conservation NGO’ and social/development NGOs.

Wilmar and its subsidiary, PPB Oil Palms Berhad (PPBOP) are both active members of the RSPO and encourage other stakeholders to join the roundtable. Wilmar, including PPBOP volunteered to have our plantations used in an RSPO pilot test programme, which started in November 2005 and scheduled to be completed in November 2007.

We have been actively assessing our policies, practices and operations in all of our oil palm plantations as part of a self-assessment to determine compliance to the proposed RSPO principles and criteria.

As soon as the RSPO formalises its principles and criteria and implements a certification scheme, which is expected towards the end of 2007, Wilmar will have its plantations audited based on RSPO certification and will also diligently strive to source palm oil from other sustainable suppliers.

The RSPO have stated that no palm oil plantations may state that it is supplying RSPO certified products until the principles and criteria have been officially formalised and an endorsed certification scheme is in place, for more information, go to http://www.rspo.org/Key_documents.aspx

As part of our ongoing initiatives to evaluate our environmental and social performance, we participate in evaluations and audits including those conducted by Rabobank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Control Union Certifications (The Netherlands).

In November and December 2006, Control Union conducted a chain of custody audit on Wilmar’s plantations, mills, refineries and bulk storage facilities in Indonesia. The audit was commissioned by Essent, a Netherlands-based power company. As a result of the study, a Green Gold Label Certificate for Chain of Custody and Processing Standards (GGL01) was awarded to Wilmar in January 2007. The GGL01 Certificate shows that we have a (management) system in place to trace crude palm oil back to our plantations, which comply with the criteria as an Agricultural Source for Green Gold Label. The RSPO criteria for sustainable palm oil are not yet implemented as part of this standard. The Commission Blok in the Netherlands will advise Essent about its standard, mainly concerning the traceability and in accordance with these criteria.