Supply Chain Transformation
Supply Chain Overview
Our Supplier Guidelines outline the basic principles that we expect all our suppliers to uphold. They cover topics such as legal compliance and business integrity, labour and human rights, environmental protection, product quality and safety and reporting violations or misconduct. In turn, our suppliers are expected to communicate and implement the principles in our Supplier Guidelines throughout their own supply chains.
We have an extensive responsible sourcing programme to help our suppliers build capacity and meet the standards set out in our Supplier Guidelines. With strong roots in palm oil and sugar, we are particularly focused on the responsible sourcing of these two commodities through knowledge-sharing and on the ground interventions.
ART is dependent on mapping all the mills supplying the refinery, as well as their FFB sources, where possible. Currently, the ART programme only focuses on Wilmar's own refineries and all direct mills supplying our refineries.
For a mill to be considered traceable, we need to be able to record all critical information, including parent company name, mill name, address, GPS coordinates, and volumes supplied to Wilmar refineries. A minority of mills are categorised as untraceable. Untraceable does not imply we do not know who we buy from but instead means that the supplier does not fully meet our traceability criteria, (e.g. parent company/group affiliation or GPS coordinates).
The ART programme does not seek to equally engage all mills in the supply shed simultaneously. Instead it adopts a Mill Prioritisation Process using spatial and non-spatial information to prioritise and target higher risk mills in a vast supply shed for deep engagement. Assessments will be carried out on the 10% high priority mills.
Spatial data is captured using GIS data overlaid with information from Global Forest Watch and Forest Monitoring for Action (FORMA) alerts. It includes legally protected areas, key biodiversity areas and peat soil areas as documented by an international body.
Non-spatial factors focus on the known sustainability policy and performance of the mills, and include companies that have their own NDPE Policy and implementation plan, RSPO certification status, volume supply to the refinery and TFT’s assessment register.
Following the mill prioritisation process, field visits are undertaken, and practices are assessed against Wilmar’s NDPE Policy requirements. Importantly, these field visits are not driven by a certification agenda or an audit; rather the visits seek to build trust and engagement for mills by providing practical recommendations for the mill and their FFB suppliers to improve practices. The site visits are supported by Wilmar’s consultants together with our internal teams.
An initial discussion at headquarter level with key management is followed up by an assessment, which includes samples of the mill’s third-party FFB suppliers such as commercial plantations, smallholders, as well as fruit collection centres. A typical visit will take three to five days, and prior to finalising the assessment report, the assessment team will meet with the mill to discuss findings. Following these three steps, an overarching report is developed, summarising issues and recommendations without identifying particular mills or growers. This report serves as a medium to provide important information about trends of issues that require attention across the region/landscape
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Wilmar wants to reach out as extensively as possible to ensure that our entire supply chain is included in the ART process and will be able to receive support for ongoing improvement. This is done through broad-level engagement workshops and training which all the suppliers of a particular refinery are invited to attend.
Workshops share the work that has been done in that landscape and provide an overview of what common issues were found, as well as recommendations for addressing the issues. The workshop is also complemented by a series of training sessions open to all our suppliers, as well as to their FFB suppliers. Key stakeholders, including industry experts, government agencies and our customers have actively participated in the workshop and training sessions to directly engage with our suppliers.
- WINA Dumai and WINA Pelintung Overarching Report
- WINA Dumai and WINA Pelintung Overarching Report_ Indonesian
- Joint Sabah Overarching Report
- BEO Overarching Report
- WINA Gresik Refinery Overarching Report
- WINA Gresik Refinery Overarching Report Indonesian
- Kuala Tanjung and Paya Pasir Refinery Overarching Report
- Kuala Tanjung and Paya Pasir Refinery Overarching Report_Indonesian
- PGEO Overarching Report
- Prioritizing Mill Visits
- Sabah Overarching report
Supplier Reporting Tool (SRT)
Engagement with our third-party suppliers is a critical component of ensuring the effective implementation of our No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE). To support more consistent and effective monitoring of our suppliers’ progress in meeting NDPE commitments, we developed and launched the Supplier Reporting Tool (SRT) in 2018.
The SRT is an annual, online self-reporting tool used to assess 100% of Wilmar’s direct supplying mills, including our own mills and their associated estates. The data collected through the SRT enable us to identify potential environmental and social risks including potential negative impacts across the supply chain and any associated country-specific risks. It also serves as a key foundation for our Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) approach, supporting us in proactively addressing and managing human rights and broader sustainability concerns.
The SRT covers the following core NDPE elements such as:
- Access to grievance mechanisms
- Women’s rights
- Child protection
- Environmental and biodiversity impact management
- High Conservation Value (HCV), High Carbon Stock (HCS) and peat protection
- No burning
- Labour rights including but not limited to forced labour and human trafficking, freedom of association, collective bargaining, non-discrimination, equal opportunities and fair living wages
- Recruitment fees
- Legality
- Legal and customary (or traditional) land rights
- Commitment to protecting and respecting Human Rights Defenders
- Occupational health and safety
- Traceability
- Responsible Sourcing practices
Figure 1 – Sample of SRT online dashboard
SRT Process
Figure 2 – SRT process flow
Site assessments are conducted at high-priority mills and plantations to validate SRT responses and obtain further insights into identified gaps. These assessments are primarily conducted by Wilmar teams. However, third-party organisations or subject matter experts may be engaged, depending on the nature of the identified gaps.
The following activities are undertaken during site assessments:
- Opening meeting which includes a refresher on Wilmar’s NDPE Policy
- Documentation reviews
- Observations of operational practices and conditions at the mills and plantations, including workplaces and housing/ living quarters
- Interviews with mill/plantation management staff
- Confidential interviews with mill/plantation workers (without the presence of management staff)
- Closing meeting which includes an initial summary of findings, feedback and guidance
The improvement plans and recommendations are developed to address identified issues following each site assessment. Suppliers are required to review and clarify findings as well as sign off on the proposed improvement plans with progress monitored annually through the SRT.
Issues that cannot be resolved satisfactorily are escalated to Wilmar’s Grievance team for further action.
Supplier Group Compliance (SGC)
With over 1,000 direct suppliers in our supply chain, we have invested substantial resources to develop extensive programmes to
The SGC verification programme, was developed and is executed with support from Aidenvironment Asia. As of 2023, the programme monitors more than 23.4 million hectares, which covers over 1,100 parent groups representing more than 8,100 plantations units, spanning across Malaysia, Indonesia and other palm producing countries.
Please refer to our Supplier Group Compliance page for more information.
Partnerships & Collaborations
Collective action to effect real and lasting change on the ground.
Grievance Procedure
Raise new grievance cases and access our full list of grievance cases and progress updates.
Policies
No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation Policy and other sustainability related policies.
