Environmental management
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT FRAMEWORK
As part of our health, safety and environment (HSE) framework, environmental management is integrated into our business activities. All our businesses are required to adopt internationally recognised environmental management standards, as well as the Group’s specific environmental standards. The Group’s standards provide guidance on how we expect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy and water consumption, waste, environmental risks, biodiversity, regulatory compliance and incident reporting to be managed, as well as our requirements in terms of reporting environmental data.
We have integrated sustainability in our business processes to attain a holistic approach to designing and building low-carbon projects, incorporating resource efficiency, recycling, renewable energy, digitisation and stakeholder engagement. Our employees receive environmental training during induction and on an ongoing basis to keep them updated on our improvement initiatives, ensure their practical understanding of our environmental stewardship and to support compliance with our environmental standards at project level.
Our businesses are certified on ISO 14001 environmental management system and are required to keep abreast with international developments in environmental management, including climate change. Digitisation, automation and other innovative technologies are key enablers of improving our environmental performance, maximising value for our clients and differentiating our service offering in the future.
- Additional information: governance of sustainability
- Additional information:our ESG risks and opportunities, available in the downloads section below.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Our contribution to a lower carbon economy is our set of capabilities, which position the Group to help our clients meet their climate change goals. We have also set ourselves goals to reduce our carbon emissions and position the Group to mitigate climate risks and exploit opportunities.
Our participation in fossil fuel projects has been carefully considered, weighing the need for power to support socioeconomic development against the impact on the environment as well as the likely decrease in demand for thermal coal over time. The only thermal coal projects we will participate in are those based in South Africa, which needs its coal-fired power stations to sustain its economic viability. We will also support metallurgical coal projects until sustainable alternatives for large scale steel production are available.
In addition to our broader contribution, our greenhouse gas emissions plan is central to the reduction of our own carbon footprint and achieving net zero. Electricity generated from fossil fuels and fuel (diesel and petrol) used for mobile equipment and transportation are the key sources of carbon emissions from our business activities. Key carbon emissions reduction initiatives under consideration include electricity from renewable sources, low carbon alternative fuel, energy efficiency and behavioural change programmes, and carbon offsets for residual emissions.
Our ongoing engagements with suppliers on environmental issues helps us to better understand greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and environment-related risks along our supply chain. In time, this will inform initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint of the entire value chain. We also engage indirectly with governments on climate and environmental policy through industry bodies such as the Minerals Council South Africa.
Climate Change Position Statement
Our Climate Change Position Statement commits us to:
- Monitor and reduce own carbon footprint.
- Evaluate participation in new projects against the environmental imperative to mitigate climate impacts.
- Act responsibly when participating in fossil fuels projects. Regarding coal, the Group will, other than in South Africa, limit its participation to metallurgical coal projects until such time that sustainable alternatives for large scale steel production are available. We will only consider participation in thermal coal projects which include coal earmarked for power generation in South Africa, for as long as the country’s economy and its electricity generating capacity depend on thermal coal.
- Ensure that projects in which the Group participates comply with relevant environmental specifications, governmental authorisations, and local and international environmental and social standards.
- Collaborate with clients and the supply chain to find innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions in our own market sectors.
- Grow service offering to the renewable energy sector to assist in the transitioning to a low carbon future that mitigates environmental and climate change risks, and
- Follow the TCFD framework to create an understanding among stakeholders of the Group’s ability to respond to climate change risks and opportunities.
- Additional information:refer to our CDP Climate submission for detailed disclosure, available in the downloads section below.
ENERGY
Sound energy management is key to reducing our carbon footprint and managing operational cost. Our Group-wide energy management standard requires our businesses to compile an energy inventory, conduct energy assessments and implement energy efficiency action plans. Energy efficiency initiatives are integral to our plan to reduce carbon emissions.
WATER
Our Group-wide water management standard guides our approach to water supply, conservation and discharge. Our businesses are required to implement initiatives that conserve and recycle water, and ensure that their activities guard against negative impacts on water bodies and that all water discharges are lawful. Where required by clients’ water use licences, the quality of water discharge is measured by third-party specialists.
- Additional information:refer to our CDP Water submission for detailed disclosure, available in the downloads section below.
MATERIALS
We aim to continuously improve the input materials we use in our projects, using them efficiently and passing these gains on to our clients. We do not use prohibited products and practices. When clients procure input materials, we aim to use these efficiently, and when we procure input materials, we aim to procure responsibly with a keen focus on the materials with the least negative environmental impact.
RESPONSIBLE WASTE MANAGEMENT
We responsibly manage waste from generation to final disposal. We look for ways to avoid waste generation and, where waste cannot be avoided, we dispose of waste in an environmentally sound manner, ensuring that the health of people, flora and fauna is not endangered, and that waste is not used for unauthorised purposes. Our initiatives to minimise waste generation and disposal include improved engineering designs, recycling, and reuse or alternative use of waste materials, where feasible.
Non-hazardous waste is disposed of at landfill when recycling is not feasible. Hazardous liquid and solid waste are disposed of by authorised third-party service providers and recorded with certificates of safe disposal and transfer notes. We recycle non-hazardous glass, paper, plastics, steel, timber/wood and used oil.
END OF LIFE
We typically construct large infrastructure for the metals and minerals sectors, and the renewable energy and power infrastructure sectors. These assets have a long lifetime and are not consumed goods that are disposed of in landfill. When these assets are eventually decommissioned and disposed of, the materials are largely inert and will not typically contribute to methane emissions in landfill.
BIODIVERSITY AND LAND
Our biodiversity management standard applies to all projects and requires our businesses to establish biodiversity management plans to understand biodiversity-related requirements, and identify potential biodiversity impacts and the action plans needed to prevent or minimise these impacts. Biodiversity and land impacts are considered during project planning, preparation and implementation and are typically addressed in the project design phase. Negative impacts may include land clearing, projects located near sensitive areas, and adverse impacts on protected and threatened flora and fauna.
During project execution, we adhere to a biodiversity mitigation management hierarchy that prioritises the most favourable options, which starts with avoiding the use of unsustainably sourced materials as far as our influence will allow. We strive to minimise the duration of noise and pollution, and actively engage in onsite biodiversity restoration, which may involve re-vegetation to recover biodiversity that has been negatively impacted.
Our environmental risks and incident reporting standard covers these potential impacts. Flora and fauna-related incidents and follow-up responsibilities are logged in our environmental incident reporting system.
RISK MANAGEMENT
The Group’s integrated assurance framework identifies, assesses, monitors and reports our risks and opportunities, including those related to climate change, energy, water and waste. Project disruption risks and risks relating to changing rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures are considered in the project planning phase. All new projects are evaluated against climate change risk. New risks experienced on projects are elevated monthly to operating company level and quarterly to the risk management committee.
- Additional information: detailed disclosure on our risk management.
Scenario analysis within our mining businesses has enabled us to identify key climate change drivers, risks and opportunities associated with mining, and which may impact our business going forward. The scenario covers the Group’s reputation, the market, policy and legislation, technology and physical risks. We will consider the feasibility of developing a scenario analysis for our renewable energy and power infrastructure business in the next reporting year.
- Additional information:refer to our CDP Climate submission for detailed disclosure, available in the downloads section below.
EMISSIONS AND WATER REDUCTION PATHWAYS
The differing geographies, project pipelines, technology and operations of our businesses present challenges in terms of setting uniform emissions targets for the Group. Emissions targets may therefore vary between Group businesses to ensure they are both stretch targets and realistic based on the operation’s current circumstances.
The key objectives of our emissions and water reduction pathway project are to identify where we can achieve material reductions in energy and water consumption, and develop targets at project, business and/or Group level (as appropriate).
We continue to work towards creating a net-zero future for the Group, and are developing plans to reduce emissions with reference to the comprehensive baseline established in FY2023 for operations and assets under the Group’s control. A key enabler of this project is robust engagement across the Group to improve our understanding of the emissions and energy consumption patterns within each business.
ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE
We comply with the environmental and carbon tax laws and regulations of all countries in which we operate. South Africa’s Carbon Tax Act places a tax on qualifying GHG emissions, which includes an organisation’s stationary combustion equipment with a cumulative input capacity exceeding a 10 megawatt threshold. We evaluate our total installed capacity annually and have not exceeded the carbon tax threshold since its inception in 2019.
Our operations in the Americas have a relatively small carbon footprint and we do not own any industrial facilities. As such our operations are not subject to the USA’s and Canada’s carbon pricing mechanisms.
In South Africa, we are compliant with section 30 of the National Environmental Management Act, which prescribes the reporting of environmental incidents and the measures to be taken.
Emerging climate and carbon regulations are monitored to ensure that we keep abreast of any potential impacts on the Group.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Metrics for electricity, fuel and water consumption, and waste disposal are monitored and measured monthly. Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions (diesel, petrol and electricity), total amount of energy used and total water withdrawal are externally assured annually. The Group has set a goal to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 10% from it its assets and operations by 2027. Long-term targets are currently being established at the business level. The emissions inventory for FY2023 has been adjusted to focus on operations and assets under the Group's operational control. Previously, the Group utilized a “financial control” approach which included emissions from clients’ assets thus presenting challenges in setting progressive emissions reduction targets due to fluctuations in project awards. Planned reductions in our carbon footprint, energy, and water consumption are based on the baseline established under the “operational control” approach.
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions
In FY2023, we established a baseline for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions (FY2023: 6 800 tCO2e; previously 73 940 tCO2e set in FY2015).
Scope 3 emissions
Scope 3 emissions for the year equated to 52 540 tCO2e. Building on the work done in FY2022 and FY2023, we refined our Scope 3 emissions approach to align with the operational control boundary, but have not restated prior-year data which followed the financial control approach. Most of our Scope 3 emissions are derived from upstream capital goods, followed by purchased goods comprising of mining goods and steel.
Energy
Total energy consumed includes all direct (all fuel types) and indirect (electricity) energy sources, with the majority of sources used in FY2024 being diesel, petrol and electricity
Water
In line with our operational control approach, only water withdrawn from municipal sources is reported. Almost all water withdrawn from this source is legally discharged back into municipal water systems, accounting for our low levels of water consumption.
- Additional information:refer to our 2024 Indicator Report, available in the downloads section below.
GOVERNANCE
The Board, supported by the social & ethics committee, is responsible for overseeing climate change-related matters. The Group chief executive has ultimate responsibility for the Group’s climate change related performance and decisions. The Group executive for risk and HSE, who reports directly to the Group chief executive and social & ethics committee, is responsible for coordinating the Group’s environmental programme and ensuring that climate-related issues are appropriately managed.
The social & ethics committee receives and considers quarterly reports on important environment-related matters ranging from industry benchmarking and climate change reporting frameworks to environmental regulation and performance metrics.
Climate change is an agenda item of the executive committee’s quarterly risk reviews and annual business planning cycle. The HSE and risk forums ensure that the Group’s prioritised environmental initiatives are consistently applied Group-wide, monitor progress against these initiatives, facilitate the sharing of information and lessons learnt, and monitor the Group’s key environmental metrics.
The HSE forum also supports the sharing of insights on innovative thinking and new technologies that support our HSE objectives.
The forums report to the Board and its relevant committees on our environmental performance and progress.
- Additional information: governance of sustainability.
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