Sustainability Report 2017 Compliance As one of the leading providers of high-quality fermentation alcohol to both local and international markets, NCP Alcohols considers health, safety and the environment as its highest priority. Adhering to the frameworks of the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, SANS 10330 (HACCP), ISO 45001, as well as maintaining Kosher certification, NCP Alcohols aims to assure all its stakeholders that its products and operations comply with the most stringent laws, regulations and standards. To ensure it lives up to its own high standards as a company, regularly internal and external audits are conducted against applicable standard and legal requirements. The aim of these audits is to continually improve the level of customer satisfaction, develop existing systems and promote growth of the business.
Training NCP Alcohols prioritises the steadily increase of the awareness and skills level of its employees by conducting both internal and external training. Several benefits are achieved through these training initiatives, including satisfying legal requirements; equipping the staff with the relevant skills and knowledge for the safe operation of equipment to prevent adverse impacts that can be caused by any element in our production process, supply or in the use of our products and to bridge the skills gap within the company.
During the year of 2017, NCP Alcohols completed several SHEQ training programmes such as Fire Extinguisher, Working at Heights, SHE Representative, Recycling Awareness and Spill Kit training. NCP Alcohols’ in-service training programme offers students a year of “live training” in the fields of analytical chemistry, applied chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, food technology, instrumentation, microbiology, SHEQ and chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering (light - and heavy current). Over and above this, the students are given the opportunity to be actively involved in the numerous community and social upliftment programmes currently implemented by NCP Alcohols.
Communication NCP Alcohols believes in “keeping it simple” and boasts an honest and constructive culture when it comes to internal and external communication with stakeholders. The company has a strong corporate brand on all corporate communication which is governed by policy and aligned with the corporate strategic intent. Today, especially when communicating sustainability, we rely more on the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” and share the company’s focus and intent with more visual and compelling elements to honestly portray a commitment to sustainability. An executive committee member hosts monthly (interactive) staff meetings and gives employees access to the viability of the company. Specific formal and informal communication mediums form the critical drivers of NCP Alcohols’ positive organisational resilience when it comes to change.
Corporate Social Investment (CSI) Our CSI programmes are based on the real needs of the employees and the community members of the area in which we operate. The majority of our beneficiaries are disadvantaged communities and individuals, and the company focuses its CSI initiatives in the fields that are relevant in the South African context, namely education, health and welfare, safety and environmental conservation. Kenville Primary Feeding Scheme:
This project provides one meal per week to 60 primary school learners, who are in need, at Kenville Primary School. NCPA’s Chat & Chow canteen, chef PumeSello, makes and delivers these sandwiches herself like clockwork every Friday.
Look Good Feel Better Foundation:
The company is an annual and monthly sponsor to this worthy project that enables members of the Cosmetics Toiletries and Fragrances Association (CTFA) to present make-over workshops for female cancer patients at Durban’s Addington and Parkland hospitals.
NCPA spots and empowers up-and-coming talent! In-service training is annually provided for students from higher learning institutions in and around Durban. The lucky ones get a chance to experience a 12-month experiential learning experience at the company to complete their qualifications.
Fulton School for the Deaf: The
company takes part in the school’s “Sponsor-A-Child” campaign on an annual basis. The programme sponsors the transport costs of one learner for one year. NCP ALCOHOLS Sustainability Report 2017
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Sea Cow Lake Secondary School Science Classes: Weekly science
practitioner twice a week and a doctor once a week. The NCP Alcohols Clinic is also the entry point for any staff member to apply for assistance as part of the company’s Employee Assistance Programme. Apart from assistance in health and finances, the company also supports an annual Wellness Day when employees receive vital health checks including a free HIV/Aids test.
National Sea Rescue Institute: NCP Alcohols is a silver partner of the NSRI. The special bond was formed after the company gave the institute’s Station 5 in Durban a facelift during the 2016 Madiba Day 67 minutes initiative.
Clinic
classes are presented to the Grade 12 learners of the Sea Cow Lake Secondary School by NCP Alcohols’ in-service trainee volunteers. The majority of the learners in the school are from the nearby informal settlement. The project, now entering its third year, proves to be successful and some of the learners who regularly attended the lessons showed a marked improvement in the subject.
Vegetable garden for the aged: Tafta’s
St Martin’s retirement village was the beneficiary of a passionate team of volunteers from NCP Alcohols who generously created a better enabling environment for the home’s elders. Tafta have been working on accessing funding for St Martins for over a year and within a two-week period the NCP Alcohols team supported Tafta’s Inspiring Active Ageing programme by establishing a healing garden, supplying a JoJo tank, and purchasing much needed crockery, curtains and tablecloths for the elders’ meeting room. Last but not least, the engineering workshop repaired the gym equipment.
An onsite clinic, managed by both a clinic sister and doctor, has continually maintained the health and wellbeing of all staff members and permanent contractors at NCP Alcohols. Operational two days a week, the clinic offers all staff and contractors occupational health medicals and basic primary health care checks. A significant decrease in the number of clinic visits from 2016 to 2017 has been noted. These statistics prove that implementation of the various health programmes such as yoga and biggest loser competition have improved the health of the staff. The statistics are also proof that employees with chronic illnesses have learned to better manage their conditions. In 2016, the total number of healthcare visits stood at 692, while 2017 saw a total of 547 clinic visits.
South African Guide-Dogs Association: The company donated
prizes towards a fundraiser held at Morningside Country Club on 1 May 2017 to assist in raising much needed funds for SA Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind.
Diabetes SA Durban: NCP Alcohols supports the Durban branch of Diabetes SA. The support is aimed at the calendar event hampers for efforts on Valentine’s, Mother’s and Father’s Day to raise funds for diabetes education. As it is not being funded by Government, raising funds for diabetes education is difficult. The education is also aimed at non-diabetics on how to live a healthy lifestyle so not to become diabetic, while diabetics are educated on how to live a healthy lifestyle to not suffer the awful complications associated with diabetes eg heart disease, stroke, amputations, kidney failure, blindness, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, nerve damage, and sexual dysfunction.
Durban Children’s Home Christmas Party: NCPA hosted a Christmas party at the Durban Children’s Home in December. Volunteering staff members get to hand out the gifts, partly donated by employees themselves. The company sponsors the eats and treats and the remaining gifts needed. SAPS and Community Policing Forum: A one-man wooden guard hut was donated to the Greenwood Park Community Police Forum’s CPF initiative of visible policing in the Effingham area. The area is in close proximity of the plant and in desperate need for visible policing. The guard hut will provide shelter for community policing forum volunteers. As a result of the continued support by NCPA to the Greenwood Park Police station, senior operations and safety personnel at NCPA have been offered special communications in the event of an emergency with the SAPS. Athletics Club: The company has an
athletics club managed by employees called the Leafy Leapers. Members of the club are supported by NCPA and employees can register and attend four sponsored races per year.
Soccer Club: NCP United Football Club ensures that employees are able to take part in the popular game of soccer.
Employee Assistance Programme (NCPA EAP): The company provides
the services of an occupational health
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In the year 2017 the Occupational Risks and Exposure Profile (OREP) document was released. Created in partnership with our clinic doctor and sister, the OREP details all the risks associated with each job category at NCP Alcohols. It allows the clinic staff to tailor-made conducted medicals for each individual’s job.
Hazard Identification And Risk Assessments By regarding the health and safety of everyone onsite with the highest importance at all times, NCP Alcohols makes use of risk assessments and hazard identification actions to form the basis of the company’s Safety, Health, Environmental and Food Safety (SHE & FS) integrated management system. Before conducting any work onsite, staff and contractors are obligated to perform risk assessments to highlight the potential dangers associated with each job or task. Actions such as job observations, audits (internal and external) and general inspections take place on a regular basis. To reduce risks, NCP Alcohols has adopted and adhered to the following hierarchy of control: elimination, substitution, engineering, administration and PPE.
Improvement Opportunity (IO) System At NCP Alcohols all safety, environmental, health, quality, security and property damage incidents are reported on our IO system. This system plays a vital role in recording, monitoring and preventing incidents which occur on our site. Every employee has access to the IO system, which creates awareness of the various events which occur on site. When an IO is submitted into the system, an investigation of the incident is required. A study requires the incident findings to be stated, the root cause of the problem and preventative measures to avoid the event from re-occurring in the future.
Environment 2017 ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES Objective 1: Reduce effluent sulphate levels to ≤250 ppm by December 2017 Effluent sulphate
Safety 2017 SAFETY OBJECTIVES Objective 1: To achieve zero (0) fatalities and zero (0) DIFR by January 2018. Disabling Injury Frequency Rate (DIFR 2017 – 2nd Quarter)
Reduce stormwater contamination to achieve stormwater discharge specifications by December 2017. Initiatives to achieve stormwater compliance are ongoing. Objective 2: Land: Reduce general waste and increase recycle waste by 1% - December 2018. Initiatives to reduce waste on site are ongoing. Air: Maintain air emissions to below legal specification by 2017. Objective was achieved. Objective 3:
Objective 2: To reduce the number of incidents involving hazardous chemical substances by 50% from June 2017 to June 2018.
Water: Reduce site water usage by 15% from 2016 usage. Initiatives to reduce water usage onsite is ongoing. Energy: Maintain site power at ≤2.45 MW/h. Objective was achieved.
Incidents involving HCS 2016 vs 2017
Health
Objective 3: To reduce the number of first aid cases by 50% from June 2017 to, June 2018.
At NCP Alcohols we are passionate about living a healthy lifestyle and recognise the impact that health issues such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, smoking, obesity, alcohol and drug abuse on effect the well-being of our employees. Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and onsite clinic with trained occupational health practitioners assist employees in preventing serious diseases and effectively managing chronic conditions so that we can have a positive impact on our employees’ quality of life and our bottom line.
First aid cases 2016 vs 2017
Ongoing awareness campaigns are scheduled to communicate relevant health issues to our staff. The results from our annual wellness day checks are used to gauge the overall health and wellbeing of our team with the aim of providing the necessary guidance and support. Our Occupational Health Programme is based on routine health risk assessments that are done by approved inspection authorities. Some of our risks include exposure to
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noise and hazardous chemical substances. Should abnormalities be raised from medical evaluations, then the necessary investigation and reporting will follow. NCPA employees manage their Soccer and Athletics Clubs with the support from the company. The NCP Alcohols Football Club was established in 2009 and hosts friendly matches at least every quarter. The company’s athletics club, the Leafy Leapers, is affiliated to the KwaZuluNatal Athletics Federation and employee members are sponsored for their participation in four events per year.
HEALTH OBJECTIVE 2018 Objective 1: To achieve zero (0) NIHL cases for 2017. Objective was achieved.
Energy And Carbon Footprint
2017. Initiatives to reduce waste onsite are ongoing. Water pollution: All spillages must be reported so that we can prevent water pollution. It is imperative that any spillage is minimised or timeously cleaned up appropriately.
2017 WATER POLLUTION OBJECTIVE Objective 1: Reduce site water usage by 15% from 2016 usage. Initiatives to reduce water usage onsite are ongoing. Air pollution: We have changed from coal boilers and now utilise gas boilers in our plant. CO² gas from our fermentation plant is sold to a gas company and is eventually used in the beverage industry.
2017 AIR POLLUTION OBJECTIVE Objective 1: Maintain air emissions to below legal specification by 2017. Objective was achieved.
Preservation Of Resources Resources such as water and electricity need to be carefully maintained, and at NCP Alcohols we pride ourselves in adhering to suitable methods of sustainability and limiting resource wastage.
NCP Alcohols is committed to reducing and eradicating harmful environmental factors. Therefore, we strive to ensure that our manufacturing process is as sustainable as possible. Some of the conserving strategies used in our process include: • During the first stage of the fermentation process, acid condensate is used to dilute the molasses; the water which is used in this process is recycled water which is obtained from the distillation process and the buffer tank. • Molasses is one of our key ingredients in manufacturing our product, and this ingredient is a by-product from local sugar refinery’s which is recycled into making ethanol. • CO2 is a by-product obtained from the fermentation process, this gas is then captured and sold, which reduces our impact on global warming. • Concentrated molasses solids is a by-product from our process. This material is not discarded but instead sold to local farmers and is used as feed and fertiliser. • In our process, vapours which are produced during the evaporation process are used to heat the next evaporator, this reduces the amount of steam used. • On our plant lagging is used to prevent heat loss to the environment, this reduces our heat emissions. • To reduce environmental incidents such as spillages, we have implemented bunds on our plant.
Pollution Land pollution No littering is allowed onsite, and waste bins are provided in all areas of the plant. Specially marked containers are provided for the recycling of cans and paper. Cardboard is also collected for recycling. Process areas around the plant are bunded for the containment of spillages for recovery. All process effluent is directed to the effluent treatment plant, and after that it is directed into the municipal sewer system, allowing for limited pollutants to be transferred.
2017 LAND POLLUTION OBJECTIVES Objective 1: Reduce general waste and increase recycle waste by 1% by December
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Procurement And Supply Chain At NCP Alcohols we seek to ensure that all of our raw products, which are acquired for the production of our ethanol, are procured from suppliers who are both sustainable and environmentally responsible. Also, NCP Alcohols disposes of waste through certified and accredited recycling/disposal suppliers which are regularly evaluated.