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Sustainability

Monitoring, Review, Verification (MRV) & Reporting

Compliance Management

DSN Group’s NDPE compliance management procedure will systematically assess its Palm Oil Mills and supply base through three stages: 

  • Traceability, via a transparent traceability system to ensure FFB sourced from third parties to our mills is compliant to DSN Group’s NDPE. Source are classified in the following manner:
    • Known Source: The source is recorded and known, 
    • Controlled Source: The source is participating in a Supplier Roadmap, 
    • Compliant Source: The source of FFB delivered to DSN GROUP mills is proven to be compliant with DSN Group’s NDPE Policy. 
  • Supplier MRV, wherein we will assess all our mills and suppliers to ensure compliance with DSN Group’s NDPE policy. Suppliers are assessed based on the NDPE policy and commitments to legality, sustainability, and ethical behaviour. 
  • Landscape MRV will monitor deforestation using remote sensing, especially in the Integrated Conservation Areas (ICA) areas. The process involves:
  1. Creating baseline data of the supplier catchment area. 
  2. Creating boundaries for DSN Group’s supply landscape to include all existing (and potential) 3rd party suppliers and of the ICA within the supply landscape based on forest cover. 
  3. Active monitoring of deforestation and peatland degradation using technology, satellite mapping and near real time data through trusted partners and providers. 
  4. Reporting of land use change at ICAs level every three months.

Step-Wise Process for Reaching Compliance

DSN Group is committed to monitor and report the compliance process as part of our regular monitoring procedures. Supplies to our mills from plantations that have deforested or planted on peat after the establishment of the NDPE agreement (31 March 2020) will be excluded from supplying DSN Group in the future. To ensure enduring transformation, DSN Group shall also endeavour to create awareness for community-based monitoring systems to consolidate its commitments. 

Balancing Risk and Inclusions Factors

DSN Group’s Supplier Roadmaps is designed to assist suppliers meet DSN Group’s NDPE policy and avoid risk of unfair exclusion. Our mills and supplier compliance will be assessed against NDPE policy criteria. The monitoring and review processes of all our suppliers and mills, is not limited to self-assessment questionnaires, they will be supplemented with technology, such as, remote satellite monitoring, as well as grievances raised by any of our stakeholders. If grievances are raised for IPCs, DSN Group will engage the suppliers through our third party supplier compliance audit to ensure independence and fairness evaluation. 

A Grievance Procedure has been established for DSN Group to address grievances from any party, whether its from the community, government and non-governmental organizations. The Grievances raised by stakeholders could lead to unscheduled audits of our third party suppliers. This mechanism helps DSN Group in the monitoring of compliance to NDPE Policy throughout our operations, mills and supply chain. 

To balance risks and inclusion factors, our Corrective Action processes will be based on findings described in audit procedures. Any Corrective Action for rectifying non-compliances will include clear definitions of the problem and solutions required with roadmap and timetable. Such timeline will be variable depending on the complexity and difficulty of the tasks. DSN Group’s Landscape and Supply Chain Department will monitor and report the timeline for compliance at regular intervals.

We will draw on the experience of our CSR team that has had a track record of successfully implementing alternative livelihood programs (link to food security & alternative livelihoods) around our operations to ensure inclusivity and to create the necessary awareness on various social issues with regards to exploitation.

Commitment to Transparency & Accountability 

DSN Group is committed to building a culture of Transparency and Accountability, hence we aim to publish our progress with our key sustainability commitment regularly. A key part of Sustainability Commitment is our NDPE policy implementation progress. We shall publish our progress regularly, which will include, amongst others, specific KPIs for our palm oil mills and our suppliers, such as number of non-compliances detected annually, as well as percentage of volume meeting compliance requirements, through our website and the Annual Sustainability Report.

We value feedback from all of our stakeholders, especially from smallholders and those in our supply chain that are most vulnerable, particularly on social and exploitation issues. Their feedback is what we use to improve and make the necessary changes to the way we do things. Supplemented by our CSR team on the ground that constantly engage with our stakeholders, DSN Group has in place a rigorous grievance handling procedure to be able to respond as quickly as possible to all feedback we receive.