2008-09-16 - Stakeholders have commended ABB South Africa for its environmental and energy efficiency programmes and support of care for HIV/AIDS orphans.
These views were expressed at ABB South Africa’s Stakeholder Dialogue in Johannesburg on 11 September attended by a broad cross-section of society.
Stakeholders also identified areas where ABB could do more such as in enterprise development in the supply chain and promoting ABB's energy efficient technologies to customers.
Stakeholder dialogues present an opportunity to engage in discussion, independently facilitated, so that the views of groups and organisations that have a stake in a company’s activities are taken into account.
The dialogue was facilitated by Michael Rea of Trialogue, an independent, sustainability research and assurance consulting organisation that publishes the South African “CSI Handbook” and “Sustainable Business Handbook”.
ABB South Africa’s sustainability approach and programmes were presented by Carlos Pone, CEO of ABB South Africa, Nthabiseng Dube, Marketing and Communications Executive, and Chesney Bradshaw, Corporate Communications and Sustainability Manager.
Pone said sustainability was important to ABB and highlighted ABB's pioneering work in sustainability reporting and initiatives to attract and retain talent and increase health and safety and energy efficiency.
ABB South Africa's commitment to the environment, said Pone, includes investing (along with the developer) R400 million in a green building for its new head office, logistics and manufacturing centre at Longmeadow, Johannesburg. It incorporates water recycling, solar heating, energy efficient motors and lighting as well as an ABB building management system. The building, to be occupied by 1000 employees in 2009, also showed ABB's commitment to the country.
"We thank all our partners for their interest and support of ABB,” he told participants. “Sustainability is one of our most important issues and we are proud of what we have achieved. We value the opportunity to include views of stakeholders in our sustainability programme.”
A workshop identified sustainability priorities and three groups discussed key issues for growing technical skills, enterprise development in the supply chain and climate change and carbon neutrality.
Participants at the dialogue included ABB employees and management, and representatives from government, customers, suppliers, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and universities.