March 2009
By Jan Botha - Brand Advocate (Eastern Cape)
This is the underlying principle behind our environmental drive. The Port Elizabeth branch social club has supported worthy causes such as animal welfare, orphaned children, the aged and needy families for some time.
The Brand Advocates identified caring for our environment as the next step in caring. Global pollution has reached levels approaching the point-of-no-return and our callous disregard for our environment is documented on a daily basis. That's the bad news. Good news is that the fight back has commenced. Global companies are spending billions of dollars purchasing carbon credits. Carbon credits are a key component of international emissions trading schemes that have been implemented to mitigate global warming. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse effect emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading.
Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets at the prevailing market price. Credits can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.
On a smaller scale we can all make a difference. Safcor Panalpina Port Elizabeth has an existing paper-recycling programme in place, where excess office paper is sent to a facility to be recycled into paper and related products. Printer cartridges are being recycled and the proceeds are donated to "The Players fund", a fund created by former Springbok captain Morne du Plessis in support of rugby players with spinal injuries.
A glass recycling bin has been placed in close proximity to the office and staff are encouraged to recycle their glass items. Plastic recycling is the latest project launched by the Brand Advocates. A bright orange collection bin has been placed in the office and staff are actively encouraged to bring plastic waste items from home as well to place in the recycling bin. This increases the collection area for plastic goods exponentially and outside of the office environment.
Port Elizabeth is also reviewing a call for support for a carbon sequestration and rehabilitation project to re-populate sections of the Baviaanskloof (a world heritage site) with indigenous Spekboom, a remarkable CO2 replacement tree. Spekboom has enormous carbonstoring capabilities. Its capacity to offset harmful carbon emissions is equivalent to that of moist, subtropical forest. Carbon credits are obtained through this process to offset our carbon footprint.
Future projects for consideration will include higher-level, aspirational projects such as replacing delivery vehicles with zero-emissions electric vehicles as soon as technology allows. I am very proud to be a part of a great company; - not only in the traditional sense of doing business well and caring for its people, but that much more so for taking a stand in favour of our environment and having the courage to take the first steps in the right direction.