30 FGV HOLDINGS BERHAD SUSTAINABILITY AT FGV Key changes in 2018 included the addition of Labour Relations to Human Rights to cover equal remuneration and freedom of association and the separation of Talent Management from Employee Engagement and Well-being to provide greater coverage of talent development and succession planning. Effective Communication moved to a lower position as we persisted with ongoing engagements with our stakeholders to ensure that we were communicating our performance and activities effectively. Following recent events related to sustainability, RSPO certification has climbed up the priority ladder to become one of our top stakeholder concerns. In addition, FGV recognises the importance of climate change, responsible use of pesticides and water management. Although it does not feature highly on our materiality matrix, we consider these matters to be of significant importance to our business and continue to dedicate a substantial amount of resources to addressing these matters. In 2019, we conducted an internal review and assessment of our material matters to validate their relevance to our stakeholders and business operations. We were guided by sustainability frameworks, guidelines, principles and the requirements of sustainability rating indices such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). In addition, we reviewed topics and best practices of selected industry players and global initiatives such as the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Sustainable Palm Oil Transparency Initiative (SPOTT). We aligned our material matters to local, regional and global issues and megatrends to identify potential gaps, which included benchmarking against sustainability standards such as RSPO, Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO), No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation (NDPE), SDGs, Malaysia’s SDG Roadmap Phase 1 and the 11th Malaysia Plan. After our external validation exercise, we are pleased to report that there have been no major shifts in our material issues. We have also mapped each material matter to relevant SDGs and our Six Capitals of value creation (AIR 2019), which represent the boundaries within which they have an impact or are impacted on. Material matter Why it is important YIELD IMPROVEMENT Improving yield through improvements in operational efficiency and leveraging on innovation to use environmentally friendly pesticides and fertilisers will reduce the pressure to open up new plantations, as well as mitigate the impact on the environment. ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE Our economic performance determines the sustainable economic value we generate, as well as the value created for our stakeholders. The strength of our financial capital mirrors our economic performance. GOVERNANCE, ETHICS & INTEGRITY Strong governance, ethics and integrity practices will ensure sustainable and responsible business growth that is highly valued by investors. RSPO CERTIFICATION Compliance with the RSPO Principles & Criteria ensures that we are in line with the most widely accepted sustainability standards for palm oil in the world, while also helping the Group produce palm oil that commands premium pricing. HUMAN RIGHTS & LABOUR RELATIONS Ensuring we respect human rights and practise fair treatment of all our employees is part of our commitment and is crucially important for our business to remain sustainable, and grants us the social licence to operate.
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