Bidpaper Plus

Sustainable development at Bidpaper Plus

In the interests of both the market and the natural environment, the business will increasingly develop electronic communication products and services that add business value beyond paper. Supporting this vision, we are determined to develop a highly skilled, motivated and nurtured employee body to complement our ongoing investment in leading-edge technology. We are also raising reliability levels across all aspects of production.

Material sustainable development issues

• economic hardship of employees in the economic downturn
• skills shortages, particularly in technical roles
• risk of injury when working with equipment
• responsible supply chain stewardship and choice of packaging materials
• increasing impact of HIV/Aids

Sustainability

PEOPLE
Employee engagement

Employee engagement takes a number of forms, from representation through the unions (Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers and the South African Typographical Union) to employment equity forums that meet regularly to discuss important employee issues such as recruitment, promotion and training. This year we have concentrated on communicating the realities of the economic downturn for our business, redeploying staff following rationalisation at the Cape facility, and managing employee expectations over work hours.

Because many employees are experiencing financial difficulties – partly the result of irresponsible lending practices – we have been putting staff through a life skills programme, helping them draw up household budgets and engage in responsible financial management. This is in addition to a debt counselling service.

In view of lost productivity when expensive equipment stands idle, we are also concerned about absenteeism. We monitor closely the number of man-hours available against actual man-hours and some businesses run incentive programmes to discourage abuse of sick-leave.  

All companies within the division provide workers with a modern and safe working environment. We scrupulously observe all regulations relating to the use and disposal of inks, chemicals and other potentially harmful materials. There were no significant work-related incidents. Renewed emphasis has been given to HIV/Aids awareness. Senior managers have given a lead by going for Aids tests in a ”Know Your HIV Status” campaign.

Skills development

Following our major recapitalisation programmes, Bidpaper Plus requires a highly skilled, reliable and motivated workforce to extract the best value from our high-tech operations. The general scarcity of skilled technicians is therefore a concern, and is compounded by the collapse of the print industry SETA, which has been declared insolvent.

Our response has been to increase our training investment to approximately R3,6 million, representing a significant increase in training spend per employee. We bolstered our training resources through the appointment of a highly qualified technical training officer to our training academy. Training is not only given in technical skills, but in sales and marketing. Increasing the professionalism of sales teams is crucial to long-term success as we are positioned as solution-providers rather than suppliers.

Lithotech’s learnership academy, launched in 2008, gives students the opportunity to work at the company for a year while being mentored. Successful graduates of this programme may then be contracted to work for the company for four years. During this period, the company will continue to invest in extra-mural studies for the learners. 53 students are currently on the programme. The company aims eventually to reach the DTI’s target of 5% of employees in learnership positions.

We believe top skills can only be utilised to the fullest when a solid foundation of essential skills is in place. We therefore embarked on an adult basic education and training programme, assessing 400 employees for essential skills development.

We are committed to broad-based transformation in the workplace and have achieved success in promoting suitable candidates to junior management level. However, attaining employment equity at senior management level remains a key BEE focus area. The depth of experience required will only come with time – a challenge we are determined to overcome.

SMME (QSE & EME) suppliers

The new DTI codes of good practice have reduced the burden on small businesses seeking to register as BEE-rated suppliers to large businesses such as Bidpaper Plus. In response, we developed a simple web-based tool to assist small suppliers with their registration. From inception in September 2007, we have registered 368 suppliers (and potential suppliers), up from 300. The system is not only transforming our base of BEE suppliers, it is also assisting SMMEs with the certification required to do business in the South African marketplace. Procurement from BEE-rated suppliers rose to R600 million from R250 million and now represents nearly half of our procurement spend in the domestic market.

Carbon footprint and the environment

Following the government’s call to conserve electricity, we have redoubled our efforts to manage usage responsibly, switching off lights and equipment when not in use. We also promote environmental sustainability in our quarterly in-house magazine.

Bidpaper Plus recognises that the handling of chemicals at our operations necessarily poses a risk to the environment. All production units therefore run environmental programmes to meet legislative requirements for the responsible management of potentially harmful processes. Levels of emissions are monitored and corrective action taken.

We have further improved our handling of solid waste by appointing a waste recovery contractor to collect, sort, recycle and dispose of all solid waste responsibly. Most importantly, our waste stream is now monitored and measured, providing us with certificates showing the proportion of waste to landfill versus recovery, and providing a benchmark against which we can measure future progress. 

Multinational clients and consumers increasingly demand that we scrutinise our products for responsible stewardship in the supply chain.  Our partnerships with suppliers enable us to offer clients environmentally friendly products, either made from recycled materials or from materials that allow for greater levels of recycling or biodegradability. This type of choice is especially important with packaging products. The high carbon footprint of packaging in the fast-food industry has prompted us to investigate the development of a range of compostable packaging that we intend launching locally.