While many would agree that Safaricom has taken giant leaps in becoming a ‘green’ organization, there is speculation on whether Africa’s best mobile operator has gone far enough. Safaricom has indeed made significant progress, but still has a long way to go to reach its ambitious sustainability goals, according to its 2019 Sustainable Business Report released last Thursday.
The company has set goals to: significantly reduce its water consumption, rely 100% on renewable energy sources, and manage electronic wastes along its supply chains. These are some of the objectives signifying the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship while producing products and services that sustain the Kenyan environment and its people.
In addition, in 2017, Safaricom made the commitment to be a plastic-free organization by eliminating all forms of plastic used within Safaricom facilities and minimizing the plastic used in retail packaging by the end of 2019. Such a commitment and the focus on Safaricom’s supply chain means that its plastic elimination goals could ripple through broad swaths of the economy, where an estimated 900,000 people are impacted directly and indirectly. So far, this initiative has removed 2.52 tonnes of plastic from Safaricom, conserved 8.64 tonnes of paper, and saved KES 46.8 million.
Since 2016, the company has eliminated more than 14,000 metric tons of emissions. In 2019, the company’s scope 1 emissions which includes direct emissions from fuels, gases, company-owned vehicles, fuels used at BTS stations, refrigerants and fugitive gases reduced by 8.3 per cent. This milestone, according to the sustainable business report, is attributed to the use Fuel Management System (FMS), energy efficient devices and renewable energy solutions.
To further off-set its carbon footprint, Safaricom has identified projects expected to cut emissions significantly. Examples include collaborating with Kenya Forest Service to plant 5 million trees in degraded forest reserves in Kenya, as well as rolling out its Integrated Waste Management (IWM) programme to all regional sites and offices.
The Kenya’s biggest telecom company, is becoming a more sustainable, responsible company and building meaningful, long-term change. While discussing the report on Thursday, Head of Corporate Responsibility Sanda Ojiambo said the company is focused on building meaningful, long-term change. Over the years, Safaricom has redesigned its business strategies to reduce inequalities by addressing the needs of the society in which it operates through various products and services. “In the financial year 2019, Safaricom rolled out 38 additional Universal Service Fund (USF) in some of the most remote parts of the country to provide broadband coverage to marginalised Kenyans, including areas that may not be financially viable for the business,” she said.
In addition, Safaricom has added 2.1 million additional customers in its M-PESA platform, increased its mobile data customers by 6.4 percent and increased the number of “differently-abled” persons in its workforce by 0.4 percent. Apart from that, the company has yielded a true value equivalent to 9.6 times the revenue generated of KES 62.5 billion. That means that 6.3 percent of Kenya’s GDP was contributed by Safaricom. Half of the workforce in Safaricom is female, with 34 percent of female employees in senior management. It also is looking to promoting ethical business practices and a culture of integrity within Safaricom and among its business partners and supporting the efforts of other organisations to abide by the same.
Despite its success in delivering sustainable value, the telecommunication giant has faced plenty of criticism. In late 2018, attempts were made to arm-twist Safaricom into offering its rivals access to its transmission sites and its vast network of mobile money outlets to encourage competition in Kenya’s telecom sector. Safaricom has so far put up a spirited defence of why it should not be punished for its success. “We do not deny that we are strong but we are strong because we have made the necessary investments to be strong and it would be unfair to criticise us or restrict us because we have made these investments,” said Michael Joseph, CEO, Safaricom PLC.
