Sustainability rank ripped from Korean palm oil company Korindo
Korean palm oil giant Korindo has been booted from the global Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) following a breach of regulations.
The FSC and Korindo had agreed to address allegations made against the palm oil company in 2017 by Mighty Earth, an environmental campaigning organisation, that the firm was deliberately setting fire to 30,000 hectares of rainforest in the Indonesian province of Papua.
Both businesses had agreed to verify improvements after discussing the allegations and for Korindo to provide progress reports of improvements but a procedure was never agreed.
Read more: Bottom-up ESG: New platform wants to give retail investor army voting power for £1
An investigation by the BBC later found evidence that Korindo had been purchasing patches of rainforest in remote areas of Papua. Visual interpretations suggest small areas had been deliberately set alight.
Despite not initially expelling the so-called sustainable company from FSC, a relationship between the two is no longer viable according to the non-profit organisation.
“It had become an untenable situation for FSC that we were not able to verify improvements in Korindo’s social and environmental performance against the agreed preliminary conditions. This is why the Board decided to disassociate,” FSC international director general Kim Carstensen says.
In violation of the FSC terms, the Korindo Group will no longer be associated will the regulator or display the tree logo meaning the company abides by sustainable and ethical production methods.
However, vice president of the Korindo Group Seo Jeongsik hopes to regain association in the near future.
He said, “Against the background of Korindo’s clear commitment to ESG and Sustainability, we want to emphasize the joint commitment of both, FSC and Korindo Group, to re-enter the association process as soon as possible. Our objective is still to become unconditionally associated with FSC and we will continue to make progress on the defined roadmap.”