Environmental, Health and Safety

The AfroCentric Group is committed to creating a working environment that is safe for all its visitors, contractors and employees, and a culture promoting sustainability through environmental and conservation awareness. The Group's environmental management is guided by the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 and National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA).

The Occupational Health and Safety Act is based on the principle that dangers in the workplace must be addressed by communication between the employer and employees.

The NEMA is based on the principles that everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to his or her health or wellbeing; the government must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the social, economic and environmental rights of everyone, prevent pollution and ecological degradation, and promote conservation.

Environmental, health and safety volunteers

Compliance to the Occupational Health and Safety Act is supported by volunteers within our organisation. The environmental health and safety (EH&S) team oversees 208 volunteers throughout the Group who find the time to assist with:

first aid incidents (medical or injured on duty-related);

inspections to ensure our work environment is safe;

training employees in branches that are not easily accessible to the EH&S team;

two evacuations of all major branches; and

reporting of unsafe behaviour as a near miss via the ResQ system.

The Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) since the EH&S team's inception is shown in the following graph. The high incident rate during 2011 and 2012 is attributable to inadequate safety processes and awareness of the role employee behaviour plays in creating a safe working environment

Further analysis of statistics accumulated over the years shows that the TRIR fluctuates due to the:

increase or decrease of EH&S volunteers;

increase in employee awareness of safety matters;

large intake of new employees;

changing work environment (e.g. a new building); and

reduction in reporting less serious incidents, such as paper cuts.

Carbon footprint

The carbon footprint report, also known as a GreenHouse Gas (GHG) inventory, covers emissions from the South African operations of AfroCentric's subsidiary, Medscheme. The scope of the assessment is conducted for the 2018 financial year and reported on in arrears. AfroCentric's reporting boundary under the National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting Regulations is confined to the direct GHG emitting activities under the Group's operational control and over the relevant threshold. Operational control occurs where the Company (or one of its subsidiaries) has full authority to introduce and implement its operating policies over the GHG emitting activities.

The list of activities and relevant thresholds above which GHG activities must be reported are provided in the regulations and companies are required to register and report their GHG emissions to the Department of Environmental Affairs using specified templates. The combustion of diesel in stationary emergency generators is an activity under which the AfroCentric Group will be required to register and report emissions arising from its South African facilities. Fluctuations in the annual results could be attributable t

increased awareness in AfroCentric to reduce our carbon footprint;

year-on-year improvement in the data evaluated, resulting in accurate information reported; 

a new baseline for data comparison based on the accuracy and completeness of data received in 2016.

Emissions (tCO2e)		20182	2017	2016
Scope 1 – direct	Petrol combustion in Company-owned vehicles	53	64	66
	Diesel combustion in generators	40	39	21
	Liquefied petroleum gas1	5
	R4101	31
Scope 2 – indirect	Electricity	5 751	8 779	7 896
Scope 3 – inherent	Fuel and energy-related emissions (not included in scope 1 and 2)	368	547	1 199
	Business travel	1 021	1 009	872
	Purchased goods and services (water, food and office stationery)	298	274	984
	Waste generated in operations	248	414	342
	Employee commutes	8 028	8 007	11 840

Outlook/future focus areas

The EH&S team, assisted by its volunteers and supported by management, continues driving responsible management of environment, health and safety within AfroCentric through awareness initiatives, compliance audits and risk management.

The Group is committed to improving the management of the natural resources it uses, with a focus on annual reductions in its carbon footprint, water use and waste generation.