Print

Abengoa Bioenergy excludes the Sinar Mas group from its supply chain

May 10, 2010

• The measure will stay in force until Sinar Mas can demonstrate that it fully complies with Abengoa’s environmental and social sustainability policy.
• The decision, a consequence of the company’s commitment to the sustainability of biofuels, strengthens the relevance of Abengoa Bioenergy's sustainable purchasing policy.

Seville, 10th May 2010.- Abengoa Bioenergy has asked its raw material suppliers to boycott palm oil from any company in the Indonesian group of Sinar Mas, until it can demonstrate that it fully complies with Abengoa’s environmental and social sustainability policy.

Abengoa Bioenergy tries to ensure the sustainability of all its activities as a result of its commitment to sustainable development. In the case of palm oil, a raw material that is used to produce biodiesel in its Spanish plant in San Roque, the company has insisted that sources of raw materials used by its suppliers must be socially and environmentally sustainable, according to the conditions that they must all accept and comply with in the area of social responsibility and the control of greenhouse gas emissions.

Abengoa Bioenergy has a greenhouse gas measurement system that, in addition to recording the direct and indirect emissions of all the companies in its group, also records those derived from the products and services that it purchases from third parties, including those from the use of land and the agricultural practices associated with the production of raw materials that are used to manufacture biofuels. This has led the company to redesign its purchasing policy, requiring all suppliers of goods and services to provide information about their emissions or to agree, by signing an agreement, to establish a system for measuring them within a specific timeframe.

The development of this emissions measuring system is just another step in Abengoa Bioenergy’s commitment in the fight against climate change and enables the company to quantify the emissions derived from its activities on an annual basis in order to set targets to reduce, offset and neutralise its CO₂ and to label its products and services with the associated CO₂,eq.

All companies in Abengoa Bioenergy’s supply chain must sign a social responsibility code based on the international SA 8000 standard, through which they agree to comply with all the environmental and social responsibility aspects contained in the UN’s Global Compact.

Abengoa Bioenergy is one of the leading bioethanol producers in the world with a combined installed capacity of more than 1.5 billion litres in the United States, Europe and Brazil. It currently operates ten bioethanol, sugar and electricity production plants. Abengoa Bioenergy is also one of the leading companies in the world for developing bioethanol production technologies using ligno-cellulose biomass.