Schauenburg Systems has been engaged with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics for the last two and half years and its mission statement demonstrates the high importance of ESG within the organization:

“We enhance safety and productivity in mining through innovation for the benefit of all our stakeholders. Through superior value-creation and by applying Environmental, Social and Governance criteria we sustainably create jobs.”

To achieve their ESG goals a gap analysis was performed by SGS in November 2021 to allow  Schauenburg Systems to understand their status quo. The results of the ESG gap analysis illustrated that more focus has to be placed on the company’s environmental sustainability.

Schauenburg Systems also recently calculated its first GHG inventory, also known as a carbon footprint for the 2021 financial year. Following this, the organization commits to setting a carbon neutrality target aligned with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement which aims to keep global average temperature increases below 2ºC.

Schauenburg Systems’ goal is to reach carbon neutrality for Scope 1 (all direct emissions under the organisation’s control) and Scope 2 emissions (indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy) by 2035 by installing renewable energy sources, replacing company vehicles from diesel to electric as well as purchasing carbon credit offsets and renewable energy certificates.

In this context, they are just starting up another 54kWp solar plant at their Rustenburg facility that will reduce their reliance on coal power there by up to 60%. This additional solar plant will add to the 144kWp solar plant at their head offices in Kempton Park that was established in 2020.

“Schauenburg Systems pursues a policy centred around Environmental-Social-Governance targets, the central factors in measuring sustainable success. We are convinced that this concept will allow us long-term to live our growth-driven vision for the benefit of all our stakeholders”, says Dieter Kovar, CEO of Schauenburg International - Africa Group. “Unfortunately, the current rules in Ekurhuleni and Rustenburg do not foresee us gaining any credits when we put excess capacity, especially on the weekends back into the grid, as practiced in countries in Europe”, he adds.

The increasing focus of Schauenburg International on ESG has been confirmed at their recent Global Management Meeting in Germany. “This year’s environmental catastrophes with floodings, burning forests and rising temperatures have woken up the world to do much more and we will contribute our share. In this context I like to emphasize that we have at our head office in Mulheim already 11 years ago invested into a PV plant”, states Florian G. Schauenburg, CEO of Schauenburg International Group.