Smallholders Representation Working Group Update – July 2019

In January 2019, interested stakeholders came together in Singapore to discuss on the governance and objectives of the platform. Participants attending the workshop unanimously agreed that to bring about a change, work must be done to ensure smallholder inclusivity within the platform. In order to achieve this, the Smallholders Representation Working Group was created and assigned the main responsibility of coordinating actions to identify and secure adequate smallholder representation within the GPSNR governance.

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Since its establishment a few months ago, the Smallholders Representation Working Group has been working consistently and collectively to accomplish its mission. The group has been actively involved in understanding, strategizing and testing the methods by which the platform can ensure adequate and relevant smallholder inclusion.

In its work to date, the group has selected 11 Working Group members as “Country Champions” who have extensive regional knowledge regarding the rubber supply chain. These members have been in charge of conducting interviews of various smallholder associations and organizations in their assigned country or region. The Working Group also refers to these “Country Champions” as “GPSNR Ambassadors” because of the role they play in creating awareness about the platform. In the past few months, they have helped promote the platform internationally, specifically in Natural Rubber producing countries, by interacting with several organizations, companies and government authorities in different regions of the world. This in turn has helped create curiosity and interest regarding the platform with local stakeholders and in the international rubber community.

To further this process, the Working Group is currently planning on organizing a series of workshops in various rubber producing regions of the world, including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in Asia Pacific, Brazil in Latin America and Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Liberia in Africa. The objective of these workshops will be to understand the local needs and motivations of smallholders and onboard organizations representing smallholders to join the platform. The Working Group agreed these workshops will be a chance to facilitate an open and constructive discussion between the participants, including smallholders, smallholder representatives and other rubber stakeholders. By organizing multiple workshops in different regions of the world, the Working Group is trying to ensure appropriate coverage of the vast and diverse global natural rubber supply chain.

Through these workshops and the onboarding work done by the Country Champions, the group will be able to identify relevant smallholder representatives, in view of onboarding them as GPSNR members, to ensure smallholders representation in the GPSNR governance is achieved by the next General Assembly in March 2020.

It has been encouraging to see volunteer members of the Working Group actively participate and contribute to fulfill the tasks and responsibilities assigned to the team. Going forward, the Working Group Co-chair expects more involvement of the members as the group implements its developed action plan of organizing regular events like the regional workshops aimed at the betterment of Rubber Smallholders.

July 12, 2019

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News

PRESS RELEASE: Natural Rubber players adopt policies committed to healthy ecosystems and human rights

Singapore, 24 September 2021: Apollo Tyres, Bridgestone, Continental Tires, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Hankook Tire & Technology, Kumho Tires, Michelin, Nokian Tyres, Pirelli, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, the Toyo Tire Group and the Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. are the first companies to have adopted natural rubber policies that are fully aligned with the policy framework of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR).

As members of GPSNR, their policies include eight major components: commitment to legal compliance, healthy functioning ecosystems, respecting human rights, community livelihoods, increased production efficiency, supply chain assessment and traceability, monitoring & reporting and driving effective implementation of all these components. According to Sooil Lee, President and CEO of Hankook Tire & Technology, ‘’Together with our supply chain partners, these commitments will help improve the quality of life of the natural rubber cultivators, upgrade quality of natural rubber and minimize environmental impact.’’

For Michelin’s Natural Rubber Sustainability Manager Edouard De-Rostolan, ‘’the alignment of commitments among GPSNR members, particularly with regard to the risk-based approach and the continuous improvement model, is a key driver for the platform to fulfill its primary mission, which is to create impacts on the ground in order to enhance the sustainability of the industry as a whole.’’ Pirelli’s Natural Rubber Procurement and Sustainability Manager Ulrich Antoni shared the sentiment, ‘’It’s great to see that more and more GPSNR members have aligned their policies to the GPSNR Policy framework. With the coordinated and concerted effort of GPSNR and all members, the natural rubber industry is directing individual and joint actions towards our shared goals for a sustainable natural rubber future. Pirelli will continue to take a proactive role in the platform and cascade good practices throughout the supply chain, with the ultimate goal of having an impact at the farming level too.’’

The commitment from these tire makers and their active participation within GPSNR reflects on their intent towards implementation. ‘’In cooperation with the GPSNR Secretariat and stakeholders, we will sincerely implement these policies through our business activities,’’ says Toyo Tires’ Mitch Tamaki.

To make sure that companies have adequate support to implement these commitments, GPSNR is working on an implementation guidance document and baseline reporting requirements. These will help translate this commitment into implementation.

‘’All GPSNR members are required to align with the policy framework, and it is heartening to see companies follow through with the process. We are expecting many others to follow suit in the next few weeks.’’ says GPSNR Platform Director Stefano Savi. ‘’The policies serve as a foundation for a structural transformation not just for one company or rubber plantation, but the industry as a whole.’’

The GPSNR policy framework and published policies of Continental Tires, Hankook Tire & Technology, Michelin, Nokian Tyres, Pirelli, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, the Toyo Tire Group and Yokohama Rubber can be found here. The rest of the policies will be published shortly.

-Ends-

About GPSNR:

GPSNR is an international membership driven platform set up to define sustainability for the natural rubber value chain. It brings together various stakeholders to a common ground based on fairness, equity and environmental sustainability. GPSNR member companies account for almost 50 per cent of the global natural rubber volume.

More on sustainablenaturalrubber.org

For more information, please contact:

Bani Bains

Communications Manager

Email: bani.bains@gpsnr.org

Ph: +65 97268165

GPSNR Staff September 24, 2021

News

Secretariat Update – September 2019

This update was prepared by Assel Mussagaliyeva, Industry Relations and Academic Projects Manager, Essec Asia Pacific.

ESSEC Asia Pacific partnered with the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber for their first Global Manager in Asia (GMA) project. The GMA Project included diverse multinational companies and startups with strong Asian core: International Finance Corporation (IFC Fintech Group), Grab for Business, ACT Genomics, Creatella Ventures and GPSNR. Involving 148 ESSEC Master in Management students, the Project took place on 1 July – 11 September 2019, followed by the Final Jury.

The project results were in line with GPSNR priorities in the three Asian markets. The 6 student teams under the close guidance of Stefano Savi and Kobrat Sawasdivorn explored the challenges of the smallholder farmers affecting equity of the rubber supply chain in Thailand, China and Indonesia. The results of the student research will be presented to the GPSNR Working Groups.

Assel Mussagaliyeva, Industry Relations and Academic Projects Manager, said it was a good project both from a teaching perspective as well as practical experience for the students. Firstly, it was hands on experience challenging students to think ‘out of the box’ as it involved multiple layers: a variety of stakeholders, unfamiliar context, lack of industry knowledge and limited country data. Secondly, it was a great chance for the students to work on a big picture issue, especially in today’s world of climate change challenges. The project itself was well focused and narrow enough for the students to have an opportunity to make a tangible difference.

“ESSEC Asia Pacific is grateful to GPSNR for our collaboration on multiple levels,” said Mussagaliyeva. In March 2019, GPSNR participated at the ESSEC APAC Talent Day and offered internship for the Global BBA student Tanmay Daga. Following that, Stefano Savi participated in the first ESSEC APAC student-led TedX event as an invited speaker on sustainability. Soon after, the GMA Project scope was discussed.

“We look forward to working with GPSNR in the future,” said Mussagaliyeva. The mission of ESSEC Business School is to create and disseminate cutting-edge knowledge, to train and develop bold pioneers and influential leaders for both the business world and society. We encourage the students and programme participants to anticipate – and meet – the economic, managerial, social, environmental and ethical challenges of an increasingly uncertain world. These values align with GPSNR mission as sustainability is an integral part of responsible innovation.

The Secretariat has also published the executive summary of minutes of each working group in the “News and Publications” section of the website. All members of the platform can login to the website to view the documents under the Members Only section. There are currently 2 working groups, the Strategy & Objectives working group chaired by James Laimos of Goodyear and the Smallholders Representation working group chaired by Ulrich Antoni of Pirelli. The executive summary of each working group will be updated on a bi-weekly basis. If you have any issues accessing the website, please send us an email at info@gpsnr.org.

GPSNR Staff September 21, 2019