Safaricom 2018 Sustainable Business Report

45 INTRODUCTION OUR BUSINESS OUR MATERIAL TOPICS STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT 2018 SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS REPORT why our fuel consumption has decreased, as we continue to reduce the amount of time our sites are powered by generators. We also continued to upgrade and replace parts of the equipment used to power our sites with more energy-efficient units during the year, and successfully rolled out a fuel management system to help us monitor and optimise our fuel consumption further. We are pleased to be able to report that our water consumption decreased during the year. We attribute this to a campaign to raise awareness of water usage among members of staff; the installation of meters on kitchen inlet pipes to measure water usage more accurately; and the termination of the reverse osmosis process on the bore hole water supply at Jambo Contact Centre (JCC), as we were losing around 45 per cent of the water supply during the process. E-WASTE MANAGEMENT * Cumulative tonnes since the inception of the project We are pleased to report another year of good progress with a record 223 tonnes of e-waste collected. We opened a new e-waste collection centre at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, which will serve as a collection point for the wider Nanyuki area, and we continued with the effective format employed in previous years of targeting larger institutions; for example, holding successful activations at the Eldoret National Polytechnic and several government ministries. Our partner, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Centre processes the e-waste we collect. We have also developed a communication strategy to help promote the collection programme and explain the importance of proper e-waste disposal to a wide audience across the public and private sectors, which will be rolled out next year. FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 E-Waste Collected * (tonnes) 220 430 632 855 S D G 1 2 Eco-Friendly Carrier Bags Introduced We launched our new eco-friendly, reusable carrier bags on World Environment Day in June 2017. The new non-woven bags will replace all single-use polythene plastic bags used in our retail shops. The new bags are eco-friendlier due to their re-usability, cost effectiveness and durability. The carrier bags, which will last for up to 40 shopping trips, will have a significant impact on plastic waste reduction and more than 7 million plastic bags are expected to have been removed from circulation by the end of this year. A reflection of our determination to become a ‘plastic free’ company by 2019, the switch to the eco-friendly bags will also save the company an average of KES 10 million per year, in terms of the cost of procuring bags for our retail outlets. Right: Former Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Prof. Judi Wakhungu speaking at the launch of the Safaricom eco-friendly reusable bags. Left: Safaricom staff pictured with the new non-woven, reusable bags. S D G 1 2