Yesterday, Safaricom released its fourth annual Sustainability Report which highlighted the four key areas that will influence the business in the next coming year.
Safaricom uses the Sustainability Report to measure how well it is tracking against globally recognized guidelines that measure the economic, environmental and social impacts of the company.
“The private sector has the power to create a long term impact on communities and economies. Our Sustainability Report enables us to better understand how we can ensure the future growth of Safaricom through prudent investments and thoughtful interventions,” said Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom.
In the report, Safaricom has measured its impact in four key areas namely Network Quality; Innovation; Governance Risk and Regulation; and Environmental Impact.
The report – which for the first time this year quantitatively measures environmental impact – finds that Safaricom’s energy footprint remains the largest source of emissions for the company followed by diesel consumed in generators and refrigerant gases used in air conditioning systems.
At least 95 percent of the network is powered by Kenya Power and standby generators. High diesel consumption poses threat to environment through carbon emissions.
For this reason, Safaricom has put in place energy reduction strategies such as accelerating grid connection, installation of free cooling units, fitting deep cycle batteries that allow the sites to run on stored energy for a period of time even when the grid is not providing electricity to reduce its carbon footprint. This has seen its overall footprint decrease by 18 percent this year.
Increasingly across the world , a growing number of companies have started measuring their sustainability efforts as a supplement to their existing financial reporting structure.
Global initiatives such as the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals are also pushing countries and businesses to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
“Whether you are a company, international investor, development partner or Government, our interests must be the same: to create an environment which attracts investments, creates jobs, and helps implement Vision 2030, ultimately resulting in a better Kenya,” said Christian Turner, British High Commissioner to Kenya during the launch of the report.
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