The Environment
Overview
The Group’s decisions and activities have an impact on the environment. The impacts arises from the Group’s use of resources, location of the Group’s activities, the generation of pollution and waste, and the impact of the Group’s activities on natural habitats.
To reduce its environmental impacts, the Group adopted an integrated approach that takes into consideration the direct and indirect economic, social, health and environmental implications of its decisions and activities.
Principles
Environmental stewardship is a key responsibility of our management, which carries both financial and physical risks. The Group ensures that its operations comply with environmental laws, voluntary and international best practices and standards to avoid, minimise and mitigate negative impacts on the biodiversity, ecosystems and the climate. The Group calculates its carbon footprint in order to understand its current impact on climate change, allowing it to establish and to optimise the Group’s use of resources while minimising its environmental impacts and reducing long term risks.
Waste Management
The Group is committed to reduce the amount of waste deposited at landfills and to increase the Group’s commitment to the 4 R’s, (Reduce, Re-use, Recycle and Recover), the zero-waste philosophy and Best Environmental Option (BEO) approach to managing waste with the safe and responsible disposal of residual waste.
During the year, the Group produced a total of 14 864 tonnes of waste, of which 11.76% was disposed at landfills, 49.37% of the Group’s waste was suitable for use on farms with the majority being chicken manure which was used as organic fertiliser. 11.71% was plastics and 5.09% paper or cardboard waste that was recycled. During the reporting year 482 tonnes of waste was incinerated in the National Foods’ cyclonic boiler; an increase of 50% on 2021.
Recycled Waste
Natpak through its recently installed chipping machine crushes branded plastic waste to chips, which are bought by small enterprises for their plastic moulding machines.
The corrugated box manufacturer, Alpha Packaging, recycled waste cardboard and recycled paper to make mulch to produce egg trays, while Probrands recycled 7.8 tonnes of plastic and 7.2 tonnes of cardboard boxes in the past year through local enterprises. Irvine’s produced 6 224 tonnes of chicken manure which farmers use as organic fertilisers while 1 319 tonnes of rendered biological waste was used in pet food.
For plastics, which are non-recyclable and are not halogenated, National Foods’ cyclonic boilers are the best waste disposal solution turning waste into energy, within permitted air pollution parameters. During 2022 Profeeds sent 30 tonnes of waste to the cyclonic boilers further reducing the amount of waste into landfills.
Sustainable Resource Use
Efficiency in the use of materials is key to the Group’s objective to reduce our negative environmental impact as well as a driver for profitability.
By setting objectives with corresponding targets, each business is working towards optimising the use of natural resources with the aim to improve the efficiency of production processes and systems. The efficient use of resources translates to reduce cost of production as well as reduce negative impacts on the environment.
The Innscor Group of businesses recorded 1 982 593 liters of diesel used to run generators as a result of power outages.
The Group used in total 1 373 509 m3 sourced from municipal water and borehole water – as reflected in the Water Usage per Business chart below. Water being a finite and vulnerable natural resource, the Group is continuing to investigate ways to minimise our water footprint throughout the Group.
Total Water Source for the Group (%)
As the graph ("Group Water Consumption by Source")(left) shows, the Group continues to rely heavily on borehole water, especially in the Harare area, with 76% of the Group’s water being sourced from groundwater during 2022. Through the implementation of water saving measures, the Group has managed to reduce its water consumption by 22.5% compared to 2021 and by 18.8% compared to 2020.
Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
The effects of climate change have become a global concern for all businesses.
Overview
The Group recognises that our operations contribute to climate change in some way and it is therefore the Group’s responsibility to ensure that our businesses respond positively to calls for climate change protection and mitigation. Conversely, changes in climate can in turn have an impact on our businesses, particularly those that rely heavily on water and on agricultural inputs. This potentially very important impact is recognised by the Group as needing to be taken into account in any future business plans.
The Group anticipates that climate related changes affecting its businesses would include changes in weather patterns. The impact of climate change further afield can create uncertainty by affecting the Group’s supply chain requiring that the Group adapt their supply chain strategies in order to mitigate potential disruptions.
Carbon Footprint
The Group reports its carbon footprint across all its businesses. The Group continues to use the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (United Kingdom’s) UK Government GHG (Greenhouse Gases) Conversion Factors. The information is presented as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tonnes CO2e), which is the universal unit of measurement to indicate the global warming potential (GWP) of GHGs, expressed in terms of the GWP of one unit of carbon dioxide (CO2). The GWPs used in the calculations of CO2e are based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) over a 100-year period. Electricity carbon footprint factors are taken from those developed using IPCC factors by applying the Zimbabwean electrical grid parameters, including both renewable and non-renewable sources as found on emissionsfactors.com.
When reporting on GHGs, there are three scopes of emission which are to be included in the calculations:
Scope 1 - Calculations including emissions from direct fuel use
Scope 2 - Calculations including emissions from indirect sources – electricity
Scope 3 - Calculations including indirect emissions not included in Scope 2, e.g. business travel, shipment of goods.
The Group’s carbon footprint is presented below, calculated for Scope 1 and 2.
Scope 1: Direct Emissions
Scope 1 relates to direct emission arising from business activities within our control and ownership. DEFRA Greenhouse gas reporting: conversion factors 2021 are used for these calculations. The carbon footprint has been calculated based on the fuel used for the production processes only. This includes the use of coal as well as diesel used to run ovens, boilers and generators.
* The historical data in the table above has also been recalculated using the DEFRA 2022 factors to allow the annual data be comparable with the 2022 data.
Scope 2: Indirect Emissions
Scope 2 relates to the emissions arising from the use of electricity generated by a third party or sources over which the Group has no control. The data below, including the historical data, has been calculated based on http://www. emissionsfactors.com’s IPCC calculation value of 0.729770333127 kgCO2e/kWh for Zimbabwe.
