Sumitomo Rubber Singapore, the natural rubber procurement company for Sumitomo Rubber Group, has added on an environmental and social risk assessment tool specific to natural rubber. Being part of this industry initiative will accelerate sustainable procurement of natural rubber, it claims.
As the situation that may impact the raw material procurement, there is a need to respond to environmental issues such as deforestation due to farm expansion, and social issues such as labour and human rights, against the backdrop of increasing demand for natural rubber due to population growth and development of the mobility society.
The group companies will accelerate their response to these environmental and social issues by introducing this tool and promote sustainable procurement of natural rubber pursuant to the GPSNR policy, says the Japanese firm. This tool statistically analyses huge amounts of questionnaire data to assess the magnitude of environmental and social issues, and displays the assessment results on the map.
The assessment items include, but not limited to, deforestation, water resource management, forced labour, and child labour. This tool covers ten natural rubber producing countries, including many of our procurement areas. The use of this tool will enable it to procure natural rubber from areas that comply with the GPSNR policy.
In line with its sustainability efforts, the firm adds that the group companies have been working to improve traceability and support small-scale household farmers under the banner of “Raw Material Procurement in Line with Sustainable Natural Rubber Policy.”