Padenga moves towards a low carbon footprint

08 Jun, 2018 - 00:06 0 Views
Padenga moves towards a low carbon footprint

eBusiness Weekly

Kudzanai Sharara
Reduce crocodile density? Check. Installation of LED lighting? Check. Solid waste management? Check. Solar panels? Check. Reduce the usage of fossil fuel? Yes, check that too.

These are just some of the many sustainability initiatives implemented by Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed entity Padenga Holdings Limited amid an apparent global wave of going green.

The Paris climate deal struck in 2015 by representatives from almost 200 countries sent a signal to the global economy that decarbonisation is rising on the global agenda and businesses are starting to assess the risks of inaction on environmental issues.

Padenga’s effort is an example of large corporations responding to the pressure.
The producer of crocodilian skins for the premium markets worldwide is spending millions of dollars on sustainability with a strategy to ensure the company is engaged in the sustainable use of natural resources and other aspects of social responsibility.

“There is also a very strong business case to this,” Oliver Kamudimu, chief finance officer at Padenga told Business Weekly in an interview.
“We’re going to make huge savings in some of these initiatives.”

Padenga has over the years allocated funds to making the company’s operations more efficient users of energy and water, and also to reduce its carbon footprint.
“Basically our drive now is to do all our production in a manner that is sustainable as possible and meet the requirements of our first world users as it were. If you look at our annual report we have dedicated about 24 pages to sustainable development initiatives that we have undertaken,”he said.

“The way we are going is that we want to
have production that’s done in a sustainable way and those procedures can be audited and verified by third parties. We want to be ahead of the game and we will make heavy investments into this.

“We have since engaged professionals to guide us in this process so that we get the best up to date technologies that others are using and not reinvent the wheel. We will be working with them over the next three years,” said Kamundimu.

“The way we are going is that we want to have production that’s done in a sustainable way and those procedures can be audited and verified by third parties.
“Our initiatives will also extend to our suppliers where we want to make sure they also adhere to sustainable ways of producing.

So, what are these measures that it has adopted?
One of the environmental risks that Padenga has sort to mitigate include the increased usage of electricity caused by low dam water levels due to drought.

This has seen the group invest in solar power and has since installed an additional 40kWl solar energy plant to augment the 217kWp solar energy plant installed at Ume farm.

Padenga also installed 330kWp array at the two northern farms. In addition to these efforts of reducing the amount of electricity use, the company invested in a LED replacement programme on the northern farms has been completed.

This programme was started in 2015 and resulted in the reduction of wattage by replacing fluorescent tubes with LED tubes, from 28,934 watts to 5,727 watts.

Another area of concern that Padenga is looking at reducing environmental risks is the area where coal is transported using haulage trucks leaving a damaging carbon footprint.

To this, the company is looking at reducing that high carbon footprint by transporting coal, across its farms by barge, a long flat-bottomed boat for carrying freight on rivers.

However, Padenga said although water transport for bulk goods such as coal is considered to be the lowest cost, there does not appear to be any water transport services besides the Kariba Ferry from Binga and the company has had to rely on road transport.

“However, water transport will be given some consideration in the future.”
The animal welfare is also something of close concern to management as well as global consumers and Padenga is committed to meet the expectations of the customers and end users of its products.
Kamudimu said buyers of primary product that comes out of anywhere in the world, are now really keen on seeing that their suppliers are producing in a sustainable way.

Consulting firm engaged
To further this commitment the company has engaged a consulting firm to advise on
its sustainability reporting and to assist in developing this to the desired standards, while at the same time prioritising the management of the resources that are available to it in
an effort to minimise its environment
footprint.

The number of animals per pen, if too
high, can also cause irreversible damage to the crocodile skin and to mitigate that,
Padenga has invested in more pens and in the process reduced the number of animals per
pen.

Kamudimu said 40 new pens were built in 2016 while a further 80 new pens were built in 2017.

In addition the company has engaged with both EMA and a private Environmental Consultancy Group to develop appropriate and lasting solutions for the treatment of the pen discharge water to achieve full compliance with the Environmental Management Act.
“The objectives are staggered with the immediate intention of reducing Phosphate levels to acceptable levels and then to identify a long-term water treatment solution for implementation,” said Padenga.

Wild crocodile conservation
Another area of concern where Padenga has invested heavily is that of preserving the wild crocodile population.

In 2016 Padenga supported, both financially and logistically, an aerial survey of wild crocodile populations in Lake Kariba and the Lower Zambezi River. This survey was spearheaded by the Crocodile Farmer’s Association of Zimbabwe (CFA) in conjunction with ZPWMA.
For wild crocodile conservation Padenga conducts, as an on-going initiative, conservation education programmes where the overall value of the crocodile to the nation is explained and reinforced.

Communities are encouraged not to destroy crocodiles caught in nets and are incentivised to protect and report crocodile nests so that the eggs can be collected.

Applause from CSRN
Commenting on Padenga’s sustainability efforts the Corporate Social Responsibility Network (CSRN) applauded Padenga for taking the lead in reporting the company’s social investment projects.

“You can see that this a full detailed report of the various initiatives they have been doing over the previous trading period. The fact that they dedicated so much space in their annual report highlighting their social investment projects shows that the company takes issues of Corporate Social Investment serious.

“It is known worldwide that companies that have strong CSI practices tend to attract investors and they perform exceptionally better than their peers who do not invest in CSR,” said CSRN.
The CSR Network encouraged its members to take a leaf from Padenga so that they can start to report extensively their Financial and non-financial Social investments.

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