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Business Reporter

DIVERSIFIED hospitality group, Meikles Limited, is upscaling its climate sustainability efforts as these have a direct bearing on its operations, especially the agriculture segment.

This comes as climate change is now presenting a major risk for businesses hence the need for proactive mitigation initiatives. The world is under threat from the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture and its value chains, mining sector, tourism, infrastructure and across entire economic activities.

This has created scope for businesses to come up with climate sustainability as ways to mitigate its impact. For Meikles Group, climate sustainability is a priority, which has seen the group embark on various projects on energy, water and waste management to minimise the negative impacts on the environment.

The group operates companies in agriculture, retail and hospitality which are also exposed to climate change effects.

“It is the group’s culture to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner,” said chairman Mr John Moxon in the group’s annual report.

“The group subscribes to various environmental standards, policies and procedures that minimise negative impact on the environment.

“Energy is vital in all our business value chains. The group’s policy is to ensure conservation in resource use. In that regard, the Group has energy saving taskforce representatives across all branches of our subsidiaries. Their responsibility includes raising awareness on energy use and saving,” he said.

In line with this, its agriculture segment – Tanganda completed the installation of a 1,8MW solar hybrid plant at Ratelshoek estate in Chipinge, which forms part of a wider 7,5MW solar programme across the company’s estates.

This comes as Tanganda’s estates had suffered from frequent power cuts in recent years that interrupted tea production.

The retail division, TM Supermarkets implemented measures to manage energy consumption by setting monthly targets and taking corrective action on any anomalies and the business introduced gas stoves while installation of inverters in every branch has been planned for the future.

According to the group, electricity consumption increased due to an improvement in power supply for irrigation at Tanganda Tea Estate during the financial year 2021, which led to a decrease in diesel consumption, where production in the factories was powered by generators mostly in 2020.

“The group is currently working on developing a systematic recording process to accurately measure its electricity consumption consistently across the business units,” said Moxon.

The group also has measures in place on water and waste management. Significant consumption of water is for irrigating the estates, cleaning, cooling and other hygiene purposes.

In light of this, Tanganda generates wastewater from tea, coffee and macadamia manufacturing processes as the business also manages wastewater impacts through in-house wastewater treatment plants at all tea factories.

Meikles also has a strong position on waste reduction. Its Victoria Falls Hotel has adopted a green initiative that promotes the recycling of food waste for organic gardens and this has been key in keeping the environment clean while reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfill.

This is in addition to making use of reusable glass bottles, which has significantly reduced the amount of plastic waste we generate.

The business also recognises the significance of biodiversity and takes reasonable care to manage its impacts on flora and fauna.