Barloworld Limited: Leading Brands

Overview

Barloworld is committed to the ongoing creation of shared value for all its stakeholders through the purposeful stewardship of the six capitals and balancing our stakeholders’ interests.

Value creation for stakeholders is impacted by the group’s Purpose: Inspiring a world of difference, enabling growth and progress in society, its three strategic objectives (Deliver top quartile shareholder returns; Drive profitable growth; Instil a high-performance culture) and its sustainable development framework and its commitment to being a responsible corporate. Indicators addressed under Environment are covered by our sustainable development framework and our commitment to being a responsible corporate, and the Natural and Social capitals.

Our strategic framework and approach, including strategic pillars, are endorsed by the board and institutionalised reporting structures ensure board oversight of progress.

Barloworld’s Worldwide Code of Conduct defines foundational principles of responsible corporate citizenship that include 'Protect the Environment', and sets out the group’s five core values. It determines how our aspirations and values are translated into actions and behaviours. Our code of conduct reminds us of the standards to which employees and the group are accountable, and consequently it also informs the group of what is to be regarded as material. 

Sustainability, one of our core values includes ‘We focus on environmental responsibility and preventing waste’.

 

Material aspects

Internally, improving non-renewable energy consumption and greenhouse gas efficiencies, implementation of renewable energy solutions, efficiency-of-use of natural resources, water stewardship and responsible waste management have been identified as material aspects.

We are committed to conducting our operations in an environmentally responsible manner and providing innovative customer solutions that assist our customers to achieve their environmental objectives.

We remain mindful of environmental stewardship as we engage with our suppliers and customers in such a manner that every effort is expended in ensuring that the products we represent and our customer solutions comply with the relevant environmental standards and are used in a manner that limits their impact on the environment.

Targets

In our 2022 financial period, the Barloworld Group Executive Committee approved 15% efficiency based targets for non-renewable energy, emissions (scope 1 and 2) and municipal water withdrawals. The targets are to be achieved by the end of 2027 financial period and use the FY2021 as a baseline.

The group targets are cascaded down to divisional and operational level where these are operationalized into granular consumption intensities using relevant identified consumption drivers for fuel efficiency, electricity consumption, water consumption and waste reduction and responsible disposal. Reductions achieved by business units will consequently result in an overall reduction in the group’s non-renewable energy consumption, water consumption, emissions and waste generation.

Performance against set targets are monitored internally on a monthly basis and drive focus to better understand consumption drivers and related correlations. The increased focus, measurement and monitoring has given rise to the identification of limited anomalies in certain divisions which require further investigation and may give rise to restatements of baseline intensities, changes to identified intensity drivers or actual performance. We appreciate that the set efficiency targets have not previously been set at this granular level within Barloworld, but believe this approach is necessary to ensure targets remain operationally relevant for management purposes and reducing our environmental footprint.

The 15% five year efficiency targets, translate into an annualized target of 3% per annum.

In 2023, Barloworld surpassed its annaulised targets for all three aspects, ie. Non-renewable energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions (scope 1 and 2) and municipal water withdrawals:

 

Environmental aspects	BAU* Consumption	Targeted consumption	Actual Consumption	Target Status		Targeted Efficiency against BAU	Actual Efficiency against BAU FY2023	% against Target (-) Target surpassed (+) Target not  achieved (0%) On Target
Group (Continuing Operations)
Non-renewable Energy (GJ)	4 395 000	4 263 150	4 111 064	Target Achieved	✓	-3%	-6%	-4%
Scope 1 & 2 Emissions (tCO2e)	527 229	511 412	506 184	Target Achieved	✓	-3%	-4%	-1%
Water Withdrawal (KL)	3 051 936	2 960 378	2 908 255	Target Achieved	✓	-3%	-5%	-2%

 

• Key Performance Indicators for Natural Capital ; and

Monitoring and Reporting

In accordance with our environmental policies, we measure, monitor and report aspects of our business that impact on the environment. Where practicable, we strive to reduce, minimise and offset activities that contribute to climate change. Our reporting is guided by the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI). Sustainability Reporting Standards and we also responded to the 2023 CDP Climate Change and CDP Water questionnaires. See also: Barloworld’s alignment to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Governance processes are in place that ensure oversight of environmental aspects and related impacts at a Board level. A quarterly Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) report is tabled and presented to the Group Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee, a sub-committee of the Board of Directors. Divisional Risk and Sustainability Committees adopt a similar oversight role at an operational level.

Reporting systems and assurance processes contribute towards the efficiency and credibility of our environmental reporting. Assurance processes include management reviews, ad-hoc internal audits and an agreed upon procedure review on selected material sustainability indicators at year-end.