Sanyati Holdings has resolved to focus on environmental issues, with emphasis on attaining a high level of environmental conscience and as a responsible business take the lead in its field. As part of their commitment Sanyati Holdings has appointed an experienced Environmental and Quality Manager, qualified in Environmental Management, to oversee all environmental issues pertaining to the group and its subsidiary companies. Furthermore the group recognises that every being has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or wellbeing and that the nature of its activities could impact on the environment. As a result there is a strong focus on implementing an Environmental Management System (based on ISO 14001) that will be incorporated into the already existing ISO 9000 system. The objective of such an EMS would be to:

• Identify possible impacts that may emanate from its activities;
• Implement mitigation measures to prevent, reduce and minimize the impacts;
• Create an awareness among all employees;
• Incorporate environmental issues into the company’s business strategy.   

In addition Sanyati Holdings is committed to:

• Continual improvement on its own environmental system and procedures though monitoring, auditing and review of its environmental performance;
• Comply with Environmental Management Plans (EMP) of its customers/clients in addition to all relevant environmental legislation;
• Establish its own EMP for use on contracts as a statement of our commitment;
• Endeavour to not only influence its own employees but also all subcontractors and suppliers to strive for environmental responsible practices.

Enviroscan
The Enviroscan Trust was established to assist NGOs and other interested parties undertake Environmental Projects in the KZN area. Projects completed include the planting of indigenous trees and plants, alien plant eradication, awareness programmes and beach and river clean-up projects. Enviroscan will continue to collaborate with local NGOs, be involved in community projects and training and awareness programmes. Projects are being identified through consultation with local NGOs such as WESSA and Sanyati clients (both private and public sectors).

Arbor Week Celebrations 2007
In line with Arbor week Sanyati Holdings and its subsidiaries identified various “greening” projects and planted trees at various sites which included 4 schools, along the N3 and at the Brisk Verulam plant.Together with the trees donated to the schools, schools also received a pack of educational material and posters relating to the environment and more specifically the value of trees.
Arbor week is an annual event to promote awareness of the need to plant and maintain trees throughout South Africa.The idea of Arbor Day originally came from Nebraska, where J Sterling Morton advocated planting trees, shrubs and flowers and calling it “Arbor Day”. An estimated one million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day on 10 April 1872.

In South Africa the first Arbor day was celebrated on 1 September 1983 and later extended to a week’s celebration in 1999 to enable schools, Government and the private sector to take part in “greening” communities a across the country.

The Sanyati Group has pledged to plant 60 trees during Arbor Week and in doing so embracing the benefits of planting and conserving trees, improving our overall quality of live and ultimately changing our environment.

In addition the Sanyati Group also embraces the opportunity to influence not only our employees, but also our children to cultivate healthier more sustainable communities.

International Coastal Clean-up
International Coastal Clean-up is an event that takes place ever year on the 20th of September. Sanyati Construction undertook to do their part in cleaning up our coast line together with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. However due to heavy rain the day had to be postponed for the KZN coast and another attempt was made on the 18th of October. A group of 20 volunteers collected a total of 65 bags of litter over an area of only 200m. The day was an eye-opener to the destructive habits of mankind and raised the consciousness of the staff.

14 years ago the USA based Centre for Marine Conservation initiated the International Coastal Cleanup, it started small and has grown to such an extent that in 2004 there were a 100 countries participating equating to 500 000 volunteers, and combined they removed 8.2 million tones of human generated trash from 35 000 km of coastline.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife joined the International Coastal Cleanup for the first time in 1996. This was regarded as a pilot project, with 460 people removing 9 tones of litter from 33 km of beach and included 5 divers who collected 7 kg of litter from our reefs. This programme has grown dramatically from year to year and Ezemvelo  KZN  Wildlife  now  cater  on  an  annual  basis  for  10 000 volunteers.

The International Coastal Cleanup has become one of the largest volunteer efforts on behalf of the marine environment in this Province. In 2007, 8 855 dedicated volunteers participated and our marine environment is cleaner by having 26 031 kg of litter removed from our beaches, reefs, estuaries, streams, rivers and catchments.