"As the challenges posed by climate change become more evident, it is clear that no business can ignore the environmental impacts of its own operations."
Helen Wilson, Head of Corporate Responsibility: Old Mutual Group
The table below lists the indicators by which we have chosen to measure our environmental performance. Our aim is to reduce our emissions by 20% by the year 2020. As we are using 2010 as our base year for comparison, not all figures are available for prior years.
Old Mutual South Africa continues to recognise that we impact on the environment both directly and indirectly through the business we conduct. While we acknowledge our need to reduce the negative impact that we have on the environment, Old Mutual believes in going further and contributing positively to the environment.
Many of the recent Old Mutual initiatives in this area have been initiated and tested by an Old Mutual Property task team. The initiatives involve looking at how we do our business, raising awareness of environmental issues, and improving our environmental performance through the way we manage and develop properties. These initiatives have now been combined into an approved strategy that will now be expanded to include the entire Old Mutual Emerging Markets. This more structured approach will help us to leverage greater improvements, to communicate more formally with our stakeholders and to encourage positive environmental impact.
At a property level, a key challenge is to educate and influence investment managers, developers and contractors who are still uncomfortable with the higher initial costs of green buildings, deciding between buying local products that are not eco-labelled versus imported products that are and balancing sustainability with equally urgent black economic empowerment goals. An additional focus of attention is measuring the impact of green developments in order to inform strategies, goals and initiatives.