Reminder: Important Updates on Shared Responsibility

Dear Valued Members,

Please find the following important updates regarding Shared Responsibility (SR), which you will need to comply with in 2024:

1. Self Verification: Since the endorsement of the Shared Responsibility Verification Manual in March 2024 (please refer to the announcement here), members are requested to also fulfil the second step of the verification process in the MyRSPO profile. This entails including the link to their public announcement on the website acknowledging their accountability and emphasis on their SR compliance. The SR Verification Tab is now available in MyRSPO profile, so all the members are requested to update the tab as it will be scored. 

2. Human Rights Policy Evidence: During the improvement process of the logic and structure of MyRSPO SR Section, some data migration was implemented. This unfortunately resulted in the loss of evidence/reported information regarding Human Rights policy which was previously uploaded by members. We therefore kindly request all Members to upload the Human Rights policy evidence once again in the corresponding field in MyRSPO. We would like to extend our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you.  

3. New Members: New RSPO members who have joined from 5 September 2023 shall report their CSPO uptake baseline in their membership application. CSPO uptake performance will be assessed for the first time in the first mandatory Annual Communication of Progress (ACOP) report (required after completing one year of membership). Please refer to your MyRSPO profile if you did not complete the CSPO uptake baseline during your membership application after 5 September 2023, as the questions regarding CSPO uptake are now available in your MyRSPO profile for completion.

4. Sanction Mechanism Related to MyRSPO SR Submission: Since the endorsement of the Shared Responsibility Verification Manual in March 2024 (please refer to the announcement here), the sanction mechanism for those not reporting their SR performance in the MyRSPO SR section had come into effect (please refer to chapter 4 of the Shared Responsibility Verification Manual). Therefore, members who do not report their performance on their MyRSPO profile by 5 August 2024 will be considered first year non reporters and will receive a warning letter from the SR Unit.

Due to above changes, please note that the deadline for updating your MyRSPO profile has been revised to 5th August 2024, and the new performance scores will be published in September 2024 in the SR Scorecard webpage. Top performers will be informed in September and provided with a toolkit which they can use to promote their score within their network. Any MyRSPO SR Section updates after the mentioned deadline of 5 August 2024 will be reflected in the subsequent SR Scorecard update in September 2025. We acknowledge and appreciate your efforts and collaboration in these matters.

Members can update their MyRSPO profile using this step-by-step guide. You can upload evidence showing your commitment against the SR requirements in the form of a file or URL, or you can click on the Declaration if you have not yet implemented a particular topic but are supporting the SR requirement. 

If you have questions on the Shared Responsibility announcements, requirements or experience any issue with reporting, please contact the SR team at  [email protected].

Thank you for your kind attention.

Regards,
The Shared Responsibility Team