A NEW LOOK AT SUSTAINABILITY

OVERVIEW

Barloworld’s Value Based Management (VBM) approach underlies our fundamental belief that sustainability is an interlinking and intricate web of values, practices, attitudes and relationships. With the introduction of the
10 Pillars of Sustainability, we have begun a new phase in assessing our non-financial footprint. This includes the switch to the G3 guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for reporting on sustainability issues, our intention to analyse our sustainability systems to ensure that these are functional, and a general move to understand in greater detail the key non-financial drivers of Barloworld.

Our commitment to understanding our nonfinancial footprint is highlighted by the following broad processes on which we will be embarking:

Presenting a coherent group-wide position on climate change.
Convening a group-wide debate on the key nonfinancial drivers of the group and its divisions.
Linking the group to its divisions in terms of these key non-financial issues. In other words, understanding what issues are important at a group level, and what issues are important at each division. We are encouraging our divisions to determine what these drivers are and in so doing assist the group with formulating a high-level perspective on sustainability.
Examining the broader socio-economic impacts of our business operations. Although we produce a value add statement, we believe that we need to examine the positive, and negative, implications of our business.

One key principle of sustainability is the adoption of an integrated approach to business operations, rather than making trade-offs between economic performance, environmental stewardship and social responsibility. Sustainability has as its basis the proper management of natural and human resources and the consideration of impacts and costs during the full life cycle of products. To this end the 10 Pillars of Sustainability which, in conjunction with our VBM philosophy, will provide a framework for the sustainable creation of value.

We understand that the setting of targets and measurement of performance in environmental and social terms assists Barloworld in better defining its sustainability goals and provides the basis for the assessment of progress towards meeting those targets. Furthermore, measuring our sustainability performance makes it possible for social and environmental goals to become part of our economic and financial strategies.

Targets that have been set in this report will grow on an annual basis in the coming years. Barloworld’s vision and financial strategies will be incomplete if priority is not given to the following areas:

Natural resource protection: We can reduce our consumption of natural resources and in so doing limit the impact of our operations on the environment.
Energy: The excessive use of fossil fuels is a global issue. The optimisation of our current energy consumption and the promotion of increased use of renewable energy sources along our entire value chain will be a further step towards greater environmental custodianship.
Climate change: In actively pursuing our industrial activities, we should not lose sight of the fact that we have a responsibility to make a positive contribution to the slowing down of climate change.

Targets we commit to the following targets:

The development and implementation of an integrated climate change policy and strategy;
The determination and minimisation of our carbon footprint;
Promotion of the use of renewable energy;
Energy efficiency improvements;
The monitoring of specific waste and other substances that are especially detrimental to the environment; and
The reduction of occupational injuries and elimination of fatalities

This page was updated on 13 February, 2008

Return to top