Sustainability has become a key driver for everyone at Multotec, and has promoted our environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and efforts.
Johan Robbertse, Group Financial Director at Multotec, highlights that ‘Our Multotec Way’ guides the culture and vision of the business in various aspects of sustainability. This approach is reflected in the way that Multotec nurtures its people and conserves resources like energy and water, explains Johan.
Johan Robbertse, Group Financial Director
“In recent years, as global awareness around energy efficiency has grown, Multotec began investing into renewable energy sources,” Johan points out. “We installed our first solar panel 2 years ago at our manufacturing facilities in Spartan, which delivered over 400 kW/h. This installation was soon followed by a second project, taking our self-generation capacity to 800 kW/h.”
Multotec is also planning a third solar installation at our facilities in East Rand and Tshwane. This will raise our capacity to 1.4 MW, which will provide about a quarter of our electricity needs. The positive environmental impact of these solar facilities has amounted to the removal of some 250 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This is the equivalent of planting 7 000 trees. In addition, LED lighting and other initiatives in our workshops have further saved on power consumption.
“We also support our customers in the mining and power generation sectors to operate cleaner,” Johan says. “Our samplers, for instance, help to improve the quality of coal going into power stations, so the output is more efficient with fewer emissions.”
Water quality and conservation is also under the spotlight at Multotec, with our range of mineral recovery equipment generating cleaner water for mines. Multotec often assists customers in removing brine so that their on-site process water resources can be retained in a closed loop or be discharged in a clean state.
“Our social contributions includes our commitment to skills development and creating a culture of diversity,” explains Johan. Multotec has supported over 350 learnerships since 2016, with special focus on women and people with disabilities. This has led to the training of 60 disabled learners, a number of which have been absorbed into the business.
Economic transformation is another aspect of sustainability that we have prioritised. In addition to our BEE-compliant company status in terms of the Mining Charter, Multotec has recently created a 51% broad-based black-owned entity for our services operations. With almost 300 people employed in our country-wide branch network, we support the Mining Charter goals and promote the local economy in the regions around key mining hotspots.
“The importance of local manufacture cannot be overstated when considering the long-term sustainability of our mining sector,” says Johan. “So we have taken an active role in working with industry bodies to advance the necessary certification frameworks for recognising local manufacture.”
Multotec recently received a 5-year SABS certification, which recognises them as a supplier of South African manufactured goods.
