A proud celebrant of the UN International Days, FUCHS LUBRICANTS SOUTH AFRICA is flying the flag for World Water Day on 22 March. A feature of the new net zero carbon FUCHS head office in Isando is that double pipe plumbing allows grey water to be used in the washrooms. This was a result of FUCHS’ decision to consider sustainability in the design of new facilities. The campus has six 10 000 litre tanks, four for the washroom facilities and two for irrigation.

The rainwater harvesting systems is integrated with the main municipal supply and automatically and seamlessly switch from one to the other, depending on which is available. The system is fitted with a two-stage disruptor filtration system to enhance water purity, explains FUCHS Sustainability Director Esther Seabi.

Water conservation is an important part of FUCHS’ drive to reduce its carbon and water footprint, especially as South Africa is a water-scarce country. This includes adopting sustainability measures such as rainwater harvesting, using wastewater from the demineralisation plant, and having water efficient fittings such as low flow rate taps and cisterns that use less water.

For World Water Day in particular, FUCHS is having an awareness campaign including a toolbox talk for all employees focusing on the importance of water conservation and simple but effective measures to address this topic in the work and home environment. There will also be an exhibition of posters and art to reinforce the message.

FUCHS has set itself some ambitious sustainability targets and awareness is a key element for success. It is already carbon neutral within its operations ‘gate to gate’ and aims to be carbon neutral ‘cradle to gate’ by 2025.

“We are also actively involved with the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and have set ourselves a target to spend a percentage of our EBIT for that purpose. In 2022, we spent 4%. We have also committed to continuous improvement and external, independent assurance of our sustainability efforts,” says Seabi.

FUCHS achieved a silver EcoVadis badge last year and is working on improvements. EcoVadis sustainability recognition levels are based on the percentile rank of a company’s EcoVadis score and a minimum theme score.