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| Our Business Responsibility |
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Taking stock |
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Just as international sustainability issues are showing signs of becoming mainstream, the realities of the global economic cycle have
surfaced to push back against an excessive business focus on non-financial matters. Inevitably, fears about the deepening
international global credit crunch, deteriorating health of the international banking system, sharply weakening economic and inflation
outlook, and the rising threat of international protectionism, took precedence during the reporting period. Whereas this inevitably
reduced some of the momentum that had previously built up around broader sustainability issues within business, the financial
concerns of the period did not result in an outright reversal of focus on the non-financial components of sustainability. Rather, the
period merely manifested a changed balance of emphasis, all the while within the broad realm of sustainability, and any tensions
that may have arisen between the different elements during the period were clearly seen to be cyclical not structural.
From an Investec standpoint, the reporting period saw continued efforts at cementing and entrenching Our Business Responsibility
within the bank. Increasingly understood as Investec's adopted terminology for sustainability, Our Business Responsibility has now
come to be seen as the logical confluence between Profits, People and Planet. |
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| Developments during the year |
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The detail pertaining to group-wide developments relating to the different aspects of Our Business Responsibility during the
reporting period can be accessed in full elsewhere, on our website. The period saw continued solid progress on a broad array of
fronts.
The non-financial dimensions of Our Business Responsibility saw continued focus on the many different aspects of our people and
environmental endeavours, inside and outside the organisation. On the people front, continued internal focus on diversity, talent
and leadership development commanded much time and attention, while our external people focus revolved around the
developmental aspect of our CSI activities. Our environmental endeavours, everywhere, continued to gain traction.
Specific sustainability initiatives on the South African front during the period included a commissioned third-party review of the
CIDA City Campus. Designed to provide assurance regarding both the financial and non-financial sustainability dimensions of the
institution, the review was also intended to inform our continued involvement with CIDA in the context of so many competing
demands on our resources. On the environmental front, South Africa launched an internal countrywide paper reduction campaign,
aimed at effecting a 15% reduction in per capita consumption, the eventual outcome of which was a per capita decrease in
consumption in excess of 20%. A new South African staff initiative, Team Green, modelled on the success of its Investec UK
equivalent, was established to help change internal environmental behaviours. We also featured very strongly in this year's Financial
Mail Top Empowerment Company awards, ranking sixth and placing first of the banking groups in the overall ranking.
On the UK front, traditional CSI activities remained an ongoing source of focus but an extensive review throughout the period may
drive some strategic change in emphasis going forward. The UK's internal environmental activities, further established than
elsewhere in the group, continued to win external plaudits and, for the second successive year, we featured very strongly in the
prestigious City of London Prize, winning the Chairman's Cup.
Outside of our principal geographies, sustainability has been more a function of the financial prerequisites associated with the need
to grow, build critical mass and ensure the successful integration of acquired business. However, here too, steps are being taken to
broaden the understanding of Our Business Responsibility and to cement the notion of the triple bottom line. |
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| Looking ahead |
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In seeking to demystify what sustainability means for our organisation, we have adopted the approach that Our Business
Responsibility is not something that we are looking to do as an aside. Rather, in the context of the culture and values that drive
our organisation, Our Business Responsibility is a logical extension of who we are and how we go about things. Indeed, increasingly
within Investec, the recognition is that Our Business Responsibility is simply 'good business'.
As sustainability issues worldwide have become increasingly mainstream in recent years, so have they within Investec. There is now
a more soundly based appreciation of our responsibilities as an effective corporate citizen. Having always had an innate sense of
wanting to do the right thing, the adoption of a formal group philosophy in respect of Our Business Responsibility now not only
seeks to align the interests of both shareholders and stakeholders over time, but provides the business units and regions with a
framework of reference within which to determine their own approach.
This philosophy very simply states that 'in pursuit of sustainable profits, we seek to be a positive influence in all our business
activities, in each of the societies in which we operate. We do this by empowering communities through entrepreneurship and
education, recognising the true value of diversity and addressing the challenges posed by climate change, and our use of natural
resources'.
From an overall group perspective, there is a certain asymmetry in our non-financial sustainability endeavours. South Africa, where
our focus on sustainability has its roots, has long prioritised the social aspects of the triple bottom line, embracing only recently the
environmental dimensions, whereas the emphasis has been exactly the other way around in our other principal geographies.
The social aspects which underpin our approach to Our Business Responsibility revolve around education and entrepreneurship.
We boast a long-standing and credible track record whereby we have sought to satisfy unmet needs, principally in South Africa,
by means of entrepreneurial flair and innovation (examples are the CIDA City Campus and The Business Place). On the Black
Economic Empowerment front, too, we have been consistently proactive, and are a recognised leader in the identification, financing,
creation and replication of BEE platforms within South Africa.
Outside of South Africa, the other principal geographies are also beginning to focus more attention on the specific social dynamics
within their respective operating environments and drawing where possible on the essence of the group approach. As has been
the case in South Africa, education and entrepreneurship are being singled out for pursuit, with the same regional desire for active
engagement.
The environmental dimensions of sustainability remain an incremental advance for us. As a specialist bank, we continue to ponder
the ramifications, and value-add, of signing up to inviolable commitments around our carbon-emissions or financing status. That said,
we have actively explored, and continue to explore, ways in which we can address our own internal behaviours, and are looking to
cement, in a more structured way, an understanding of the risks posed by environmental considerations. All regions are now looking
to begin the exercise of measuring their respective carbon footprint, and the pursuit of commercial opportunity within the
environmental space is well understood, and selectively pursued.
The ongoing electricity crisis in South Africa has highlighted the need to preserve energy and this theme, which will also translate
well outside of South Africa, will represent the next phase in our group-wide internal environmental awareness campaign. Beyond
that, the year ahead will see continued focus on the many multifaceted sub-components of sustainability, on the recognition that
the business units will be the primary driver of our energies on this front, with the centre merely seeking to maintain responsibility
for oversight, coordination and integration.
Having accomplished the goal of re-energising our sustainability efforts in the past year, and formally incorporating the missing
component of the environment, we have now built an appropriate platform from which to progress further. Our more
comprehensive, widespread and mature understanding of Our Business Responsibility will provide us with the sense of purpose to
guide our continued sustainability journey and, the vagaries of the economic cycle permitting, the year ahead will enable us to make
additional advances.
The 2008 Our Business Responsibility report can be accessed on our website at www.investec.com/grouplinks/obr. |
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