Materials and waste management

The reduction of waste contributes to lower operational costs for materials, processing, and disposal and proactively reduces risk of any future cost increases in waste management. This year we undertook desktop research aimed at better understanding potential opportunities to improve our materials and waste performance. Currently, our focus is on separating waste and recycling. In addition to separating waste at source, we encourage increased recycling, double-sided printing and e-statements, as part of our drive to minimise the volume of paper used in client communications. The Facilities Management unit endeavours to purchase paper only from merchants or mills that have an environmental policy and/or a forestry policy to meet the ESG requirements of the Group Procurement Policy.

Sanlam head office has increased its average levels of recycling of all waste. We are investigating additional measures to reduce waste to landfill by additional 50%, as we strive to achieve our reduction targets set for 2011-2015. Recycling is managed by an external consultant, who provides the facilities team with monthly reports. As part of our Sustainability Management Framework, Sanlam has committed to improve measurement of the proportion of waste reused/recycled and the amount of responsible disposal of technological waste. All hazardous waste is disposed of according to legislative requirements. The companies who recycle our technological waste are audited to ensure compliance.