‘Going green no longer a choice’

Going green is no longer a choice but a business imperative, especially in South Africa where it has been slow going until recently. This was according to renowned environmentalist Simon Gear, who told delegates at the recent annual Green Supply Chain Awards that South Africa’s responsibility to climate change went far beyond simple carbon accounting. “Surveys have shown green to be very important to companies in the supply chain spectrum. In South Africa it has not been at the top of agendas, but it is no longer a choice but an imperative,” he said. Companies making genuine efforts to minimise the environmental impact of their supply chain processes and actively seeking ways to improve environmental performance were honoured at the awards, which saw Abrie de Swardt of IMPERIAL Logistics walk away with the industry leader award. Gear said he had recently undertaken a survey to see how corporates were reporting on their environmental efforts. “Not only was it extremely difficult to get hold of the information, but once I had the annual reports in hand it became clear that no-one was really interested in the information and at most, in many of the cases, it is no more than two or three feel- good paragraphs.” Over recent years there has been a strong move towards companies “being green” and focusing on “environmental sustainability”, he added. But, at present, only four or five companies were involved to the level where they were taking into account where the raw materials were coming from and what clients were doing with the end products. Christoffer Ljunger, ceo of Scania, said in 2007 the environment was nowhere on South African companies’ agendas, but a lot had happened since. “We have come a long way in a very short space of time, but a lot more needs to be done.”