Last Friday April 5th REPSA received the visit of the president of the Guatemalan Exporters Association AGEXPORT (for its acronym in Spanish). During the tour, visitors went to different working areas and see first-hand how REPSA produces Sustainable Palm Oil.
The visited areas were:
Besides the agricultural and industrial operations, visitors learned about: the good neighbor relation with all surrounding communities, the environmental instruments that the law prescribes, women´s inclusion in REPSA´s working activities and about how fair and safe working spaces are kept for all employees.
Part of the tour was presenting the cocoa project that is being developed with REPSA´s influence communities. In this project, the company provides accompaniment to turn families into independent cocoa producers. On this matter, Connie de Paiz, AGEXPORT´s president indicated the following:
“I feel very impressed about everything they are doing, trying to make ecological in everything they do with the plantations and how they do the plantations, all the work they do is very professional, and the most impressive thing is everything they do with the communities.
I am really impressed with the work they are doing with surrounding communities, with women they work with food to organize them, I had the opportunity to talk to them a moment ago: they gather and have women groups that work on communities nutrition and women who are working to check what type of product they can make to help the household economy, it is truly a very integrated work in the community and the company is carrying out a very important job.
All cocoa plantations are very important for AGEXPORT; it would be very important that in 3 years when harvests are ready, we chain ourselves with them and export cocoa they would be producing and turn them into exporters” pointed out Connie de Paiz.
Local government institutions and COCODE´s accompany second monitoring 2018 of surface water bodies
Repsa carried out its second annual monitoring of water quality in surface bodies with the independent laboratory Soluciones Analíticas, company with recognized experience and certified with the standard ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation OGA-LE-031-09.
On November 13-16, Repsa coordinated the second monitoring from 2018 with the accompaniment of the Municipal Affairs Judge, the coordinator of the Municipal Environmental Management Unit, the coordinator of Environmental Sanitation of the Area of Health Southwestern Petén, technical director of Conap, and members of the Development Community Councils (COCODE for its acronym in Spanish) from the communities of influence of the company.
This monitoring is performed twice a year to assess the water quality status of surface bodies located inside the area of influence of the operations of REPSA as part of the commitment on Zero Discharges of non-treated waters to a receiving body within the Policy on Responsible and Sustainable Production. Assessed parameters are registered in the Government Agreement 236-2006 and the aim is to determine if the company causes any impact on water bodies surrounding its operation.
To engage with community leaders and local institutions on the acting of the company and its environmental responsibility, Repsa invites said stakeholders to accompany the process of sampling collection that are subsequently analyzed in an independent laboratory. Results are presented by the company before the Development Municipal Council (COMUDE for its acronym in Spanish) so that the groups that attended the sample collection can know the conclusion of said studies. Results from the 2nd monitoring will be presented at the COMUDE meeting in January 2019.
Through this activity, Repsa seeks to show its operations to stakeholders and be transparent in its practices on environmental sustainability. When considering its stakeholders, Repsa reaffirms its commitment to transparency and sustainability in palm oil production.
At Repsa we work to generate economic, social, and environmental value for Guatemala.
Leaving our footprint whilst generating value
