The POIG Secretariat is represented and coordinated by Helikonia, an advisor on strategic sustainability services based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and with staff in London, UK and Singapore.

POIG was established as a forum for actors along the supply chain to work together and create solutions to major challenges facing the palm oil sector and existing certification systems, including the RSPO. POIG aims to support the RSPO through building on RSPO standards and commitments and by both demonstrating innovation to implement RSPO existing standards as well as with additional critical issues. With a focus on the three thematic areas of environmental responsibility, partnerships with communities including workers’ rights, and corporate and product integrity, POIG members will strengthen their commitments to socially and environmentally responsible palm oil production.

POIG is based around a set of formal requirements known as the ‘POIG Charter’. It is fundamental to the integrity, credibility and continued evolution of POIG that all members support, promote and work towards the implementation and promotion of the POIG Charter and its objectives and purposes.

The objectives of the POIG Charter are:

1. to promote and support innovation and improvements in oil palm plantation and extraction mill management and throughout the supply chain on a range of environmental, social, supply chain and governance issues, and seek to have the innovations rolled out across the palm oil industry and reflected in the RSPO standard;

2. create added value for innovative and progressive producers and supply chain partners through increased market recognition and demand for palm oil products from innovative and improved practices;

3. act as a forum for open discussions and sharing of experience with innovations and improvements in: oil palm plantation practices, extraction mill management practices, responsible procurement, and product traceability and verification throughout the supply chain;

4. act as a forum to collectively engage with governments towards achieving recognition and support for innovations, and have them included in regulations and law.

1. Supporting existing verification/certification frameworks, such as the RSPO, by building on the RSPO standards and commitments. This includes the development, maintenance and sharing of a credible and verifiable benchmark (the POIG Charters and Verification Indicators), which addresses additional critical issues in relation to: no deforestation, no expansion and best management practices on peatlands, and the elimination of labour and human rights violations. POIG’s goal is not to act as a competing certification system to the RSPO, but to advocate for the RSPO and other organisations to integrate the improved practices outlined in the POIG Charters and Verification Indicators into existing standards and verification frameworks.

2. Creating innovations in the palm oil industry and promoting these innovations and those of POIG's members. POIG acts as an innovation space for front-runners within the RSPO’s membership to make improvements in palm oil production practices including, for example, on labour issues facing the industry. POIG is also committed to the exploration and promotion of creative innovations on key issues, such as alternatives to drainage based use of peatlands and mechanisms to strengthen the objectivity and integrity of audits.