Message from the Chairman of the Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee
As Chairman of the Sanlam Board's Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee, I am pleased to once again introduce Sanlam's annual Sustainability Report. The report reviews performance relating to our economic, social and environmental sustainability during 2011. The report includes a transparent account of how Sanlam has delivered on the commitments that it made last year, and contains a clear set of commitments for the year ahead.
I believe that the recent history behind the establishment of Sanlam's Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee reflects the broader changes in understanding and approach to sustainability that have taken place throughout the company in recent years. We started our journey with two separate committees, the Transformation Committee and an Environmental, Health and Safety Committee. These committees were merged several years ago, prior to the release of the King III Code, into the Sustainability Committee.
This merger reflected an important conceptual shift within the Sanlam Group, from an approach that saw sustainability simply as a compliance issue, to one where sustainability is a key strategic imperative to ensure the long-term competitiveness of the organisation. This shift in thinking is characterised, for example, by our changed approach to employee health and safety: where the initial focus was on ensuring compliance with occupational safety requirements, to an approach that is far more encompassing and includes an explicit emphasis on promoting employee wellbeing and encouraging a healthier lifestyle. This has obvious benefits for employee morale and productivity, and in turn for the longer-term success of the company.
In 2011 we renamed our committee as Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee and have expanded its scope to provide for the additional focus required both by King III and the new Companies Act that sees sustainability as being not just a long-term economic imperative, but also a social and moral imperative. This change in focus has increased our ability to more explicitly appreciate the ethical implications of our decisions and activities and the impact of these on broader society.
Our 2011 Sustainability Report displays our strong stance on ethical issues, such as fighting corruption and ensuring business integrity. I believe that the board – through its various committees – has shown clear leadership in this area. As this report demonstrates, there are many areas in which Sanlam makes an important positive contribution to society. These include, for example, its activities aimed at broadening access to financial services, and encouraging a savings culture, and providing valuable opportunities for skills development amongst employees. Sanlam is also making an important positive contribution through the efforts it is taking to integrate societal considerations in to its investment decisions, through its various partnership activities such as the Living Waters Partnership with WWF, and through its commitment to initiatives such as the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and the South African Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa (CRISA).
An important and pleasing development this year is the progress that we have made with the Sustainability Management Framework, and the momentum gained in terms of setting and achieving internal performance targets and key performance indicators. While the company's progress on many fronts is most encouraging, it is still facing some significant challenges, including in particular that of meeting our goals of ensuring a workforce that sufficiently reflects the demographics of our society.
I am confident that Sanlam is well placed to deal with the current volatile business environment. The resilience that the organisation has demonstrated during the recent financial turbulence is testament to the benefits of management's prudent approach, and exemplifies their commitment to ensuring long-term value, both for the company and for the broader society.
I wish to thank management and the Group Chief Executive who have been active this year in further entrenching our sustainability principles throughout the organisation, as well as all employees who have contributed to meeting Sanlam's vision of being a leader in long-term wealth creation and protection.
As our stakeholder, I encourage you to share your thoughts, on this report and on Sanlam's performance.
Valli Moosa
Chairman of the Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee
December 2011