Universal Mill List: A Standardized Methodology for Creating a Global Database of Palm Oil Mills
The goal of this methodology is to provide guidelines for creating one global list of palm oil mills that can be used by all palm oil mill stakeholders, including oil palm producers, processors, and traders; consumer goods manufacturers; retailers; banks/investors; and environmental and social nongovernmental organizations. Palm oil mills are facilities that process fresh fruit bunches from oil palm trees, turning them into palm oil. One palm oil mill may process fruit from multiple oil palm plantations, and palm oil suppliers to large corporations may source from multiple palm oil mills, which can lead to multiple disaggregated datasets on palm oil mill names and locations. This dataset integrates publicly available mill information, including on mills that are certified through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, one of the world’s leading sustainable palm oil certifying bodies, as well as mills privately submitted by various companies. Key features of this dataset include robust verification of mills to determine accurate GPS locations, the best available data on mill names and parent companies, and unique IDs that can be used across platforms and companies. This methodology has thus far resulted in location and attribute information for over 1,800 palm oil mills globally.
