Health, safety and environment
The Group reviews and evaluates its health and safety policies, practices and procedures annually. This forms part of the Group’s commitment to ensuring a safe and secure working environment for staff, contractors and visitors alike. The review also confirms compliance with relevant legislation.
The 2015/16 annual Health and Safety OSH Act Compliance Audit was conducted at head office, 75 Grayston Drive, Sandton and returned a compliance score of 94%. All health and safety policies and procedures are well managed and co-ordinated and the contribution of the Health and Safety Committee and Health and Safety Manager are to be commended.
Ten reportable injuries were recorded in the period under review, of which nine were submitted to the Department of Labour in terms of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. The DIFR increased from 0.92 (2015) to 1.75 in the period under review, mainly as a result of the sale of Velociti, which reduced the employee pool significantly.
| Reportable incidents recorded: | |||
| 2016 | 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of injuries reported | 10 | 9 | |
| Total number of claims submitted to Workmen’s Compensation Department (WC Department) | 9 | 9 | |
| Total number of fatalities recorded on duty | 0 | 0 | |
| Disabling injury frequency rate (DIFR) | 1.75 | 0.92 | |
As the Group is a distributor of virtual merchandise utilising its proprietary AEON platform, it does not empirically measure impacts to the environment of delivering its goods and services. However, the Group and members of staff are mindful of their environmental responsibilities, as evidenced by the adoption in the workplace of a number of initiatives.
In reducing carbon footprint, a shuttle bus for the convenience of staff operates between the Sandton Gautrain Station and head office in Grayston Drive.
Overhead lighting throughout the head office building has been fitted with motion activated sensors, ensuring that electricity is conserved when lighting is not required. In a similar manner, the water flow to all wash-hand basins is motion controlled.
In respect of Company vehicles, fuel usage and driving styles are monitored electronically in order to encourage more economical driving styles, while ensuring vehicle pollution is minimised.
Over the past few years we have been producing increasingly voluminous integrated annual reports. Not only has the cost of printing and posting of these reports increased significantly, this practice also negatively affects our carbon footprint and our efforts to promote sustainability. Legislation and best practice now enable us to provide shareholders with a summarised information booklet, with the traditional integrated annual report still being available for viewing and downloading on the website.
At our CSI programme, the 700m2 Protea Glen Boys & Girls Club of South Africa was constructed using interlocking plastic water bottles filled with sand, as opposed to bricks and mortar. This not only brought down the costs of construction, but also proved to be a most efficient and environmentally friendly building methodology.