SA companies show alarming disregard for ‘green’ issues

South African companies are not as concerned about the environment as many would like to believe, according to Brett Bowes, CEO of TerraNova, who conducted the research for the latest Supply Chain Intelligence Report. “Surprisingly, many South African companies do not have any measures regarding the impact of their supply chains and operations on the environment, nor do they plan to introduce any of these measures within the next 12 months,” he said at the launch of the 2009 SCIR in Johannesburg last week. “This revelation is quite startling considering the longpublicised and growing concern about the environment globally,” said Bowes. “Lack of attention to environmental and social issues can have profound negative effects on long-term success.” According to Bowes the 210 respondents in the survey were asked to indicate whether any of the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) from a provided list would be (or already were) forming part of their supply chain measurement metrics. The environment did not score highly. “Interestingly enough the research showed the most successful companies stated that they already had or planned to introduce metrics to measure their impact on the environment.” Bowes said this progressive behaviour was perhaps partly driven by issues of global complexity and the fact that many bigger companies (most of the companies who responded positively to the question have turnovers of more than a R1 billion per annum) were required to conform to certain standards in international markets. “Or perhaps these companies are more sensitive to changing consumer, employee and shareholder expectations and believe that they can boost their long-term sustainability by being proactive in this regard.”