GreenPalm Certificates, Traceable Back to Individual Certified Oil Palm Mills

26 Feb 2016 --- GreenPalm, the certificate trading system that supports sustainable oil palm production, has introduced certificate traceability back to the individual originating certified mill for the 2016 market.

The move is in response to a resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), asking for traceability back to the mills linked to the Book & Claim, segregated and mass balance supply chain systems. The resolution was proposed by Unilever, one of the world’s biggest buyers of oil palm products.

GreenPalm, operators of the Book & Claim system that enables buyers to offset palm purchases by buying certificates representing an equivalent volume of certified product, is the first non-physical supply chain option to implement such traceability system-wide.

Bob Norman, general manager of GreenPalm, said: “We’ve listened, reacted and introduced traceable certificates for the 2016 market.

“Currently, businesses have to work with their oil palm suppliers to devise traceability systems as there is no automatic method of tracing palm product purchases back to the originating mill. GreenPalm is the first non-physical supply chain option to link every purchase back to its source, giving the mill’s name and location so that every buyer of certificates will know which certified mill it is supporting.

“The need to expand sustainable practices in oil palm production is urgent. It is not about which product contains physical sustainable palm oil, but what is being done to support producers to work responsibly and to certified standards.

“GreenPalm was initially regarded as a stepping stone to sourcing sustainable oil palm. Now, many regard it as the only fully inclusive supply chain that is open to every certified grower.

“Forty per cent of the world’s palm oil is produced by smallholders and independent producers, a high proportion of whom do not generally have a route to export or who sell to markets where there is limited demand for sustainability. They cannot benefit from overseas demand for segregated physical supplies, but they can be supported for their efforts via GreenPalm. Without GreenPalm, they are cut out of the global drive for sustainability.”