The Group remains committed to minimizing its impact on the environment and participates in an annual carbon disclosure project (CDP) along with its majority shareholder, Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI). Key greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are measured and monitored allowing for the effective management of its emissions.
The annual GHG emissions report submitted by Catalyst Solutions outlines the latest assessment and reports in terms of GHG Protocol and CO2e ton, which is the universal unit measure.
The report covers the financial year ending March 31, 2022. The report includes the Group’s largest entities e.tv, eSat.tv, Platco, eMedia Properties and Sasani Africa.
The carbon footprint was calculated according to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. As was done last year, this year’s conversion factors were sourced from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 Guidelines and the South African Department of Environmental Affairs’ Technical Guidelines for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of GHG Emissions by Industry. These conversion factors do not change on an annual basis, making the carbon footprinting process easier.
Some emission factors, such as those for business travel captured under scope 3 emissions, were still sourced from the United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
The organisational boundary was set according to the operational control approach, whereby eMedia reports on all GHG emissions from facilities and activities over which it has operational control.
The following steps were taken in order to calculate the carbon and water footprints:
A carbon questionnaire was prepared and issued to eMedia for the collection of data;
Catalyst used the completed data questionnaire to calculate the carbon footprint for eMedia;
Values that seemed irregular were queried in email and telephone discussions with the entity representatives; and
The final carbon footprint was sent to entity representatives for approval.
In keeping with last year’s methodology, emissions from waste, refrigerants and oils and lubricants were excluded because of inaccuracies in the data. GHG emissions from these sources are likely to be minor in comparison to emissions from sources such as fuel combustion and electricity use.
There were no restatements made to the carbon footprint for the current year.
The summary below accounts for the latest findings:
The Group will continue to monitor its electricity consumption throughout the 2022/2023 fiscal to ensure that it is making use of this resource efficiently.
Direct GHG emissions
Direct emissions occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the company, for example emissions from company-owned vehicles and kilns.
Electricity/Steam indirect emissions
Scope 2 accounts for GHG emissions from the generation of purchased electricity/steam consumed by the company.
Indirect emissions
Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company including both downstream and upstream emissions.
Scope 1 emissions
Scope 1 emissions were 477 tCO2e in the 2022 financial year. This is a 144% increase relative to the scope 1 emissions in the 2021 financial year.
The main contributor to scope 1 emissions was petrol used in company-owned vehicles. It was responsible for 48% of eMedia’s scope 1 emissions.
The remaining 52% was made up of diesel consumed in company-owned vehicles (16%) and diesel consumed in back-up generators (36%).
The increase in scope 1 emissions is primarily as a result of an increase in emissions associated with mobile petrol. Mobile petrol consumption increased owing to recovery from COVID-19 and the associated restrictions as the company is no longer on skeleton staff drivers
In the reporting year, stationary diesel consumption also increased due to increased load shedding.
Scope 2 emissions
Scope 2 emissions totalled 6 610 tCO2e in the reporting year. This is a 10% decrease relative to the scope 2 emissions in the 2021 financial year.
Scope 2 emissions consist solely of purchased electricity that is consumed by eMedia and not recovered from tenants.
The biggest contributors to eMedia’s scope 2 emissions were the Cape Town Offices (40%) followed by Sasani Studios (32%) and the Johannesburg Office (28%).
The decrease in scope 2 emissions is mainly due to a decrease in electricity consumption. The decreased electricity consumption was due to the eMedia Head Office moving to 4 Albury from 5 Summit. Electricity consumption for Sasani also decreased. Sasani reports loss of one major client which would have also reduced Sasani’s own electricity consumption.
