Full annual report - African Bank - Investoreports
Full annual report - African Bank - Investoreports
Full annual report - African Bank - Investoreports
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and the electricity circuits have been spilt to reduce the<br />
number of lights that are burning unnecessarily.<br />
A group wide energy reduction committee has been<br />
established to drive the process collectively and to develop an<br />
implementation plan with costs.<br />
Water<br />
ABIL is a relatively small water user and consumed 11 142<br />
(<strong>Bank</strong>ing unit only) kilo litres on both central office campuses<br />
during the financial year 2011/2012. ABIL has set up<br />
processes to collate data from the branch network in order to<br />
increase data accuracy and our <strong>report</strong>ing integrity. Daily<br />
water meter readings are recorded to supplement the lack of<br />
proper billing.<br />
In our venture to achieving true sustainability, bottled water is<br />
being phased out at all corporate events, training workshops<br />
and board meetings. This has also assisted in educating<br />
employees and reducing our environmental impact.<br />
Information technology (IT)<br />
ABIL has invested in the IT environment in term of systems<br />
and infrastructure. During the 2012 financial year<br />
194 monitors were replaced. The <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit replaced<br />
64 watt HP 7540 Cathode Ray Tube monitors with Samsung<br />
19” LCD Power Consumption Maximum 20 watts, with a<br />
difference in wattage being 44 W. This equated to a total<br />
savings of 22 944 38 kilo watt hours and the <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit<br />
saved 2 363 tons CO e. 2<br />
The <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit’s IT division has developed a virtualisation<br />
strategy and has been able to reduce the physical footprint<br />
by running 597 virtual servers on only 25 servers. Each<br />
physical server consumes 675 watts per day, which equates to<br />
utilising 147 086 kilo watts for the year to operate 597 servers.<br />
The virtualisation of servers has allowed the <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit to<br />
save 69 177 kilo watts of electricity per year and has reduced<br />
the <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit’s emissions by 71 tons of CO e. 2<br />
Laser cartridges at the <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit’s central office are<br />
collected for remanufacture and reuse. Approximately<br />
289 ink cartridges were recycled for 2011 and 166 recycled<br />
cartridges were purchased. This helped save 498 kg CO e by 2<br />
using remanufactured cartridges.<br />
The Retail unit has also adopted virtualisation of servers and<br />
has reduced the number of physical servers from 429 to<br />
approximately 20, and this has significantly reduced<br />
electricity consumption. New disc storage facilities have also<br />
reduced the amount of power used. The Cathode Ray Tube<br />
172<br />
(CRT) monitors within 1 072 stores have been replaced with<br />
energy efficient LCD flat screens.<br />
The Retail unit’s IT division selected its preferred service<br />
provider because the company complies with International<br />
Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards with regard<br />
to the disposal of discarded, out-of-date IT equipment. Where<br />
possible, the parts of used computers and computer printers<br />
including glass, plastic and electrical wiring, are reused or<br />
recycled in a manner that is not harmful to the environment.<br />
Paper<br />
ABIL only purchases paper that is approved by the Forest<br />
Stewardship Council (FSC) to ensure that this resource comes<br />
from a sustainable source. We have also focused on reducing<br />
consumption.<br />
All marketing material at the <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit is printed on paper<br />
that is FSC approved and a particular brand known as Hi-Q<br />
Titan Plus, which is manufactured by Hansol, an<br />
environmentally responsible company.<br />
A complete life cycle assessment of this product was not done<br />
but a clear disadvantage is that this product is imported from<br />
Korea, case in point that embarking on a green journey is<br />
complex and the true costs of decisions also need to be taken<br />
into consideration when they are made. ABIL attempts to<br />
purchase local products wherever practically possible and<br />
where the true costs have been considered.<br />
Since 2012, the <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit has also reduced its Loan<br />
Agreement page count by six pages and now prints its<br />
contracts double sided. The average number of contracts per<br />
month for the 2012 financial year was 141 703. This is<br />
an estimated resultant savings of 1 700 436 pages and an<br />
approximate CO saving of 7,26 tons.<br />
2<br />
Printers are being set to print in duplex mode. At an estimated<br />
average of 5,8 million pages printed per month this could<br />
potentially halve the paper usage of all multipage printed<br />
documents. This has a direct environmental impact on trees<br />
used. Currently only 24% of printers are set to duplex print,<br />
and this should be increased to all printers that have the<br />
ability to print in duplex mode.<br />
The <strong>Bank</strong>ing unit published an internal magazine for<br />
employees at regular intervals during the year. As part of the<br />
cost saving initiative, embracing technology and going green,<br />
the internal magazine has now changed to an electronic<br />
publication – “eVoice”. This change has saved an estimated<br />
1,4 tons of paper from being consumed and 1,3 tons of CO2 emissions being emitted into the atmosphere.
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