06. February 2026

SASI Lunchbreak on supply chain due diligence act part 11

Challenges and Positive Experiences in Achieving Sustainability in the Rubber Supply Chain

Dear friends of the Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains Initiative (SASI), 

We hereby invite you to the 11^th SASI Lunchbreak on February 6^th, 2026, from 12:00 to 13:00 CET.

The upcoming Lunchbreak will focus on Challenges and Positive Experiences in Achieving Sustainability in the Rubber Supply Chain.

Natural rubber is an essential raw material found in over 40,000 products we use every day – from car tyres, latex gloves and mattresses to condoms and table tennis rubbers. At the same time, almost 90 per cent of natural rubber comes from South-East Asia, mainly Thailand and Indonesia, followed by Vietnam and Côte d'Ivoire.

However, the production of natural rubber is not without its challenges: highly volatile and often low prices jeopardise the incomes of smallholder farmers. Previous price spikes led to deforestation and land rights conflicts, which is why rubber falls under the EU Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR). Falling prices, in turn, are prompting farmers to switch to growing other commodities, while rising global demand risks further deforestation. That is why sustainability measures such as traceability are crucial to ensuring responsible production along the supply chain.

We are pleased to welcome the Global Nature Fund and the two partner companies ESN Technology and Reckitt, who will give us exciting insights into their collaboration and show how corporate due diligence and fundamental sustainability can be successfully implemented along the rubber supply chain.

And this is what awaits you on Friday, 06 February 2026, from 12:00-13:00:

12:00 pm	Opening and Updates
	Anna Berg, Division 122 \| BMZ
12:05 pm	Part I: Tools for more sustainable rubber sourcing
	Gudrun Schlöpker, Project Manager / Global Nature Fund
12:20 pm	Part II: Light and shadow during the EUDR implementation process
	Dr. Lisa-Cathrin Leitner, Challenge Area Leader Sustainability / ESN Technology Group
12:30 pm	Part III: Integrating developmental and social sustainability to achieve higher sourcing quality (tbc)
	Clare Clifton, Sustainable Sourcing Manager / Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (Global Headquarters)
12:40 pm	Q&A
12:55 pm	Summary and Outlook

Moderation: Christian Thorun, ConPolicy

The event will be held in English.

In our series of events, we will show that implementing due diligence is feasible for everyone. With our expertise, we want to actively support you in the implementation. On the one hand, we will present various practice-oriented tools and guidelines with a focus on the agricultural and food sector. On the other hand, we keep an eye on ongoing EU legislative processes and international discussions for you. It is also indispensable to take the perspective of the people and companies in the partner countries. We want to include them through our cooperation on the ground. The SASI Lunchbreak is a regular format offered online as a digital event on the first Friday of each month.

For questions and further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at sasi@giz.de.

Your SASI-Team 

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Your personal data requested during registration will be stored by GIZ GmbH for the purpose of preparing and implementing the virtual SASI networking event “11th SASI-Lunchbreak: „Challenges and positive experiences in achieving sustainability in the Rubber Supply Chain” on February 6, 2026. The legal basis is art. 6 § 1b DSGVO. In addition, your data will subsequently be stored and processed for the purpose of informing you about future events. The legal basis for this is art. 6 (1f) DSGVO. You have the right to ask for your personal data, to have it corrected if necessary or to request the restriction of processing or the deletion of the data. The data will then be deleted. The permission granted to use the personal data can also be revoked at any time. The lawfulness of the processing up to the time of the revocation is not affected by this. Please send the revocation by email to sasi@giz.de. If all personal data is deleted before the start of the event, participation is unfortunately not possible. The data controller is GIZ GmbH, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 32+36, 53113 Bonn, Germany. If you have any questions or complaints about this statement, you can contact the data protection officer of GIZ GmbH at the following email: datenschutzbeautragter@giz.de You have the right to contact the data protection supervisory authority with complaints. The competent authority is the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfD).

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SASI Lunchbreak on supply chain due diligence act part 11

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