Chemicals group AECI has set itself six group-specific sustainability targets for 2025, as shared in the company’s first-ever sustainability report published on March 26.

The sustainability report includes a sustainability framework with ten overarching goals for “a better world” in the areas of mining, water, food systems and chemistry, as well as responsible operations and passionate people.

The ten overarching goals for a better world focus on making mining safer and more circular; providing access to clean water and improving conservation; enhancing access to affordable food through improved farming, productivity and nutrition; reducing the hazardous nature and effects of chemicals; reducing carbon intensity and pursuing zero harm to people and the environment; and effecting a culture of going green and being responsible.

The six targets for 2025 are a 25% decrease in potable water consumption, a 20% decrease in discharge to sea or sewers, a 20% decrease in Scope 1 carbon emissions, a total recordable incident rate below 0.25, a 24% decrease in environmental incidents and an 8% increase in electricity from renewables.

AECI, led by CEO Mark Dytor, has already committed to installing four solar plants at key South African operational sites.

The sustainability report highlights what the company has already achieved on the sustainability front, including cutting waste by recycling packaging; desalinating water in the Western Cape; developing green chemistry for homecare and personal care brands; extending shelf-life and improving the affordability of healthy food; reclaiming 1.8-million tonnes of ash for bricks used to develop housing; recycling asphalt for the construction of roads; and using waste oil instead of diesel in the mining industry.

The company has also been reusing water, including through a R30-million water treatment plant at the AECI Mining Explosives manufacturing facility, in Modderfontein, Gauteng, which is saving the City of Joburg 400-million litres of potable water a year.

AECI has also been supporting a digital trading platform for emerging- and smallholder farmers.