Continuing the Conversation with GPSNR Topic Talks – The Sumatran Rubber Pilot

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The GPSNR Topic Talks webinar series is organised by the GPSNR Secretariat and presented by GPSNR members. The webinars cover several themes around sustainability and the global natural rubber supply chain.

The Topic Talks series continued on the 17th of March with Dr. Michael Steuwe from WWF US and Gerald Tan from HeveaConnect presenting on the Sumatran Rubber Pilot.

The Sumatran Rubber Pilot (SRP) is a voluntary, self-financed collaboration of rubber supply chain players and technical experts interested to facilitate the production and trade of transparent and sustainable natural rubber. The participating processing mills, tire makers, civil society organisations, technology providers and financial institutions have three major objectives:

  • Demonstrate how rubber’s downstream can work together to make its upstream more sustainable.
  • Identify, test, evaluate, and report on what it takes to achieve, and how to pay for transparent sustainable natural rubber supply chains.
  • Develop “Proof of Concept” approaches from and for GPSNR discussions on policy requirements and implementation, transparency and traceability, capacity building, and shared responsibility.

Within a few months of the project launch in July 2020, SRP’s four rubber processing factories, managed by the Halcyon Agri and ITOCHU groups, had traced up to 1 year of rubber supplies to the village and/or sub-district of origin based on self-declarations by their supplying dealers. These approximate origins of the rubber sources were filtered through WWF Indonesia’s new environmental risk assessment and management tool which identifies High Conservation Value Areas and High Carbon Stock Forest for the whole island of Sumatra. The results allow processors and their respective downstream supply chains to focus their sustainability work with farmers on priority areas.

The SRP partners are enhancing dealer self-declarations with digital apps such as CropIn and Hamurni to assess farms’ potential environmental, social, equity, labour and legal issues accurately and to address them.

As GPSNR adopts principles and criteria for what constitutes transparent and sustainable rubber, the risk assessment algorithms will be adapted to flag compliant rubber accordingly. This is increasingly important for rubber’s downstream as companies’ Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) impacts are becoming key evaluation criteria for investors and financiers who will demand the disclosure of the relevant information. In a parallel development, new supply chain laws will require major companies like the world’s car and tire makers to be responsible for the environmental and social impacts of their supply chains. The collection and analysis of detailed data on upstream supply chains will have to become an essential part of doing business and SRP partners are working to respond appropriately to these changes.

While continuing to focus on increasing the resolution of tracing rubber to its origin and collecting the respective data, SRP will now begin finding ways to best address the social, equity, labour, and legal issues that may have come up in supply chain assessments. 

The SRP is a voluntary, open and flexible platform of like minded partners interested in testing a diversity of approaches to achieve supply chain transparency and sustainability, and welcomes interested rubber supply chain actors to reach out and discuss how they might join the collaboration. GPSNR members interested in participating in the SRP should reach out to the GPSNR Secretariat to get involved in the project.

More To Explore

Impacts and Assurance Associate, Sustainability and Compliance

Impacts and Assurance Associate, Sustainability and Compliance

Department: Impacts and Assurance

Reports to: Impacts and Assurance Director

Employment type: Full time

Salary range: SGD 45,000 to 63,000 annually, excluding employer CPF

Other benefits: Flexible working arrangements, learning and development budget, employee insurance, generous leave allotment

Work arrangement: Flexible, hybrid

Location: Singapore

Start date: As soon as possible

Purpose of the Role

The Impacts and Assurance Associate manages GPSNR’s assurance system, an ESG performance and verification mechanism through which member companies demonstrate progress in making and implementing sustainability commitments to manage social and environmental risks. The role covers the full assurance cycle: policy alignment review, data reporting management, third party audits and assessments, assessor training, complaints handling, and continuous improvement of the assurance model. It also plays a central role in briefing members on their obligations and keeping them engaged with GPSNR’s wider work.

This is a strong fit for someone who wants to build a suite of skills in assurance, auditing, and verification systems within the sustainability and supply chain sector, while working directly with a wide range of companies, NGOs, and other stakeholders across the natural rubber value chain.

About GPSNR

Founded in 2019, GPSNR is an international, multistakeholder, voluntary membership organisation working to improve the socioeconomic and environmental performance of the natural rubber value chain. GPSNR has over 250 members, representing more than 50% of globally traded natural rubber volume.

Our members span every segment of the value chain, from smallholder farmers to tyre manufacturers, and every region of the world. We maintain a flexible, dynamic organisational culture, and we are committed to driving real improvement in the natural rubber supply chain.

GPSNR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity of experience and background, including but not limited to race, gender identity, nationality, age, disability status, parenthood, sexual orientation, and religion. Every employee’s perspective contributes to our success, and inclusion is everyone’s responsibility.

Key Responsibilities

This role covers three connected areas of work:

  1. Policy Compliance and Member Obligations
  • Review, approve, and update members’ policies for compliance with GPSNR’s Policy Framework.
  • Brief members on their obligations under the Policy Framework, Reporting Requirements, and Assurance Assessments
  1. Assurance System Management
  • Oversee the operation of GPSNR’s reporting requirements, including data publication and analysis.
  • Administer training for and approval of third party assessors.
  • Schedule, conduct, and close members’ annual third party assessments.
  • Publish the results of members’ assessments.
  • Handle complaints linked to assurance assessments.
  • Analyse assurance assessment results to identify trends and risks.
  • Conduct regular reviews of the assurance system and propose improvements.
  • Track and manage members’ assurance related terminations and suspensions.
  1. Stakeholder Engagement and Governance
  • Work with the Oversight Body, the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Task Force (MELTF), Assurance System Task Force (ASTF) and internal stakeholders to improve the assurance system.
  • Brief members on the platform’s latest developments, tools, and resources.
  • Brief members on GPSNR’s history and ongoing work.
  • Facilitate member discussion in the Assurance System Task Force.

Duties may evolve as the assurance system develops, and the role may take on other reasonably related tasks over time.

About You

You care about managing social and environment risks well and you’re motivated by creating change at scale in a global supply chain. You’re comfortable reviewing detailed technical and policy documents, and you don’t lose sight of the bigger picture while doing so.

You communicate clearly and diplomatically with a wide range of stakeholders, including company representatives, NGOs, smallholder farmer representatives, and governance bodies, some of whom may have competing interests. You can hold a firm line on compliance requirements while keeping relationships constructive.

You work well independently, manage multiple concurrent workstreams without losing track of detail, and adapt your approach as the assurance system evolves.

You are comfortable working with data sets to analyze performance, and you are keen on making changes to promote improvements in process.

You actively build positive relationships with those whom you work with, both internal and external to the organization.

Required Skills and Experience

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical or procedural requirements clearly to non specialist audiences.
  • Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, including experience managing sensitive conversations with diverse stakeholders.
  • Ability to manage several ongoing workstreams independently and prioritise in a dynamic environment.
  • Comfort with data analysis to identify trends or issues in reporting and assessment results.
  • Initiative to develop and improve procedures, templates, and processes.

Preferred Skills and Experience

  • Experience reviewing compliance, audit, or policy documentation closely and accurately.
  • Experience with assurance, certification, or audit systems (for example ISO 19011, PEFC, FSC, ISCC, or similar).
  • Experience handling complaints, grievances, or dispute resolution processes.
  • Experience working within multi-stakeholder initiatives or membership organisations.
  • Background in agricultural commodities, supply chains, or sustainability.
  • Experience training or coaching others.
  • Proficiency in more than one language.

How to Apply

To apply, email your CV to aidan@gpsnr.org with the subject line “IA Associate Application 2026, [Your Name].” In the body of your email, please include a response in 100 words or less on why this role interests you and what makes you a strong fit.

Applications that don’t follow this format, or that are submitted only via LinkedIn’s Easy Apply, will be deprioritized.

News

GPSNR Working Groups Update: November 2021

It’s been a busy month, to say the least! If you haven’t had the chance to take stock of everything that has happened, here is the update: 

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

The group has finalised the Theory of change, which is currently in the process of being designed for public communications. They have also published the Environmental Risk Study, which can be found here. 

Currently, the group is working on developing the RFP for the Economic Risk Study. 

Smallholder Representation Working Group

After three successful smallholder onboarding workshops for smallholders from Indonesia, India and Cambodia since July 2021, the working group completed three more onboarding workshops for Thailand, Ivory Coast and Sri Lanka. 

More than 80 smallholders from all three countries participated, and the working group is now working on inducting those who apply for membership into the GPSNR ecosystem. The group is also busy with the fourth smallholder international call of 2021 on 25th November to prepare smallholders for GA 2021, as well as to seek smallholders’ views on plans for 2022. 

Policy Toolbox Working Group

The group has finalised the reporting requirements which have been put up for vote to all ordinary members before the General Assembly on 14th December. Take a look at the resolution here.

Capacity Building Working Group

This month, the group worked on presenting GPSNR’s position on rubber agroforestry at COP 26 via the agroforestry Task Force and completed the first review of the GPSNR Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).The GAP Task Force is now working on finalising the GAPs, including preparations for pre-GA webinar on 2 December 2021, while a separate Task Force has started work  on commencing developments on the GPSNR Knowledge Sharing Platform. The work on the strategy review and implementation plans for Indonesia and Ivory Coast remain in progress. 

Traceability and Transparency Working Group

This working group has finalised the traceability benchmark internally, and will be holding a introducing the document  during the pre-GA webinar on 30th December 2021. The document will go out for broader consultation among the membership soon. The WG will also  provide a summary of possible tools to the EC based on traceability studies conducted last year. 

Shared Responsibility Working Group

The group has discussed and explored solutions to identified root causes for each focus area of shared responsibility. It is also continuing to draft activities and a framework for Shared Responsibility for integration into other processes such as the Implementation Guidance, which will include consultations with GPSNR members and WGs to ensure alignment on Shared Responsibility for the platform. 

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