We are making a significant effort to implement and improve sustainability standards along the supply chain of renewable feedstocks. At Evonik, we have already established clear procurement strategies and risk management systems for our critical raw materials, such as conflict minerals, and renewable raw materials, such as palm oil.

We have therefore come together with our customers to define responsible sourcing criteria for supply chains all the way to the plantation level. We carry out ongoing supplier evaluations and promote those suppliers who best meet our targets of responsible sourcing, traceability and ecological compliance. These include:

• Traceability of palm oil derivatives to plantations or mills.
• Compliance with the laws of the country of operation. Suppliers must confirm their legal compliance along the supply chain with a focus on anti-corruption and land-tenure rights.
• Expanding palm plantations must ensure conservation and restoration of High Conservation- and Carbon Stock areas and peatlands.
• Renouncement to peat clearance for new plantations and the adoption of a responsible maintenance system of peatland in existing plantation.
• Compliance and informed consent from indigenous peoples and local communities regarding new plantations, focusing on land-grabbing procedures and ILO rights of workers.
• Suppliers to Evonik are subject to the Supplier Code of Conduct and continuous review on their practices.

More informations about supply chain compliance and Evonik Principles can be found here: 

In addition to these supply chain criteria, we've also adopted these self-imposed commitments on deforestation free palm oil.

We know the challenges of responsible sourcing, but meeting these challenges is not something we can achieve on our own. It's yet another reason why we joined in 2019 the Action for Sustainable Derivatives (ASD) as founding member within Transitions and BSR.

In line with our annual supply chain investigation Evonik's Transparency Scores for the volumes in scope of the investigation (99,6% of the total volumes) are the following:

• 97 % traceable up to refineries¹ (integrating crushing facilities)
• 97 % traceable up to mills¹
• 69 % traceable up to plantations

Further details on mills entering Evonik's supply chain 2023 can be downloaded here:

Approx. 1000 mils represent 90 % of our traceable volume (level 1, high probability of actual connection with our supply chain).

Because for us, transparency is the major component for responsible sourcing. And it is only when we have completely achieved this, that ecological and social efforts will be able to go hand in hand into the future.

¹ integrating crushing facilities