Sustainability governance and management structure
Overall responsibility and accountability for sustainability within the Group rests with the Board of Directors. This responsibility is executed by the various committees of the board which provide strategic oversight on the varying elements of our sustainability:
- The Social, Ethics and Sustainability committee, chaired by Valli Moosa, an independent non-executive director, has responsibility for environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, including broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) , transformation performance, as well as safety and health of employees across the Group.
- The Audit, Finance and Actuarial Committee, chaired by Flip Rademeyer, an independent non-executive director, oversees the quality and integrity of financial and actuarial reporting and disclosures. This committee also ensures the appropriateness and effectiveness of internal controls.
- The Risk & Compliance Committee, chaired by Chris Swanepoel, an independent non-executive director, has responsibility for ensuring enterprise risk management and IT governance across the Group.
- The Human Resources Committee, chaired by Anton Botha, an independent non-executive director, is responsible for overseeing and reducing the human capital risks and monitoring the Group's human resources processes.
- The Policyholders' Interests Committee, chaired by Fran du Plessis, an independent non-executive director, reviews and monitors all decisions of the Group impacting policy holders. The committee also ensures that the organisation manages customers' complaints and lapses.
Our system of governance is informed by the King III Code on Governance in South Africa, the Companies Act and the GRI G3 Guidelines. To ensure a strong connection between our business strategy, governance and sustainability, we have established the Group Risk and the Environment and Sustainability Forums. While the Group Risk Forum monitors all business risks with the Group, the Environment and Sustainability Forum monitors the environmental, social and sustainability risks. The management of our business risks is explained in detail in our 2011 Integrated Report.
Functional responsibility for the development and co-ordination of the group sustainability strategy rests with the Sustainability Management unit, which is responsible for developing, co-ordinating and monitoring the sustainability risks and compliance throughout the Group. The unit reports to the Executive Head of Corporate Affairs, who reports to the Chief Executive of Group Services, a Sanlam Board member. The Executive Head of Corporate Affairs chairs the Group Environment and Sustainability Committee, an advisory body with representatives from all the business units and functional areas, as well as from our partners WWF. This committee works towards positioning Sanlam as a leader in environmental sustainability within the local financial services sector. The committee reports are tabled at the Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee. The responsibility for financial, social and environmental implementation vests with various functional departments and units within the Group; these include human resources, finance, facilities, marketing, risk management, our customer-facing units and the Sanlam Foundation.
An important focus of our sustainability performance during the year has been on developing the Sustainability Management Framework and associated key performance indicators, sustainability compliance reporting and promoting sustainability awareness aimed at developing leadership on governance and sustainability throughout the Group.
Click here to view the 2011 Integrated Annual Report.
As part of our commitment to transparency and accountability on social and environmental matters, we subscribe to a number of international and local voluntary codes and standards. Key among these is the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), a policy initiative that allows Sanlam to align our business to ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. We have submitted our second Communication on Progress (COP) this year, disclosing our performance and progress on our commitment to these principles. We also subscribe to the King III Code of Corporate Governance and the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment. Our acceptance on the JSE Socially Responsible Investment Index and our continued participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project are both evidence of our commitment to transparency around our management of sustainability.