Sustainability
Our sustainability journey
At VDG we are on a sustainability journey to strengthen the positive impact our business has on people and the planet. We are acutely aware that the sustainability challenges and trends being experienced around the world, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification and human rights abuses affect us all.
We genuinely believe through our business operations we can contribute to addressing these issues, and are taking active steps to do so. While we acknowledge we are only early in our journey, we are committed to doing our bit. This ranges from taking steps to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increasing clean energy use, reducing the use of harmful chemicals, and supporting our people and the communities we operate in.
We are excited to showcase some of our progress and share our future endeavours as shared here.
Sustainability pillars
The foundations of our Sustainability program and ESG performance are under pinned by our values and principles, and our 3 sustainability pillars.
Our impact
Environmental
Increase the use of clean energy in our operations
Supporting customers to reduce waste and increase recycling
Achieve Net-zero for business operations
Social
Reduce our environmental impact and eliminate the use of harmful chemicals. Maintain a safe workplace
Ensure equal opportunity for women and increase female participation in management roles
Ensure the rights of all workers are protected and engender a culture of fairness and respect relating to all aspects of employee engagement. Ensure we have a sustainable business
Improve quality of life in communities and the workplace by providing equal opportunity for all. Lead the industry for indigenous employment opportunities
Governance
Operate in compliance with
relevant legislation, acts,
standards, regulations, codes of
practice etc. Be ethical and
transparently report
performance
Cross-cutting
Grow and foster existing social
partnerships and seek
opportunities for collaborations
to enhance achievement of the
SDGs
Materiality and goals
Where to next?
We are now in the process of refining our goals, to make them align to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and understanding the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and other reporting requirements, together with starting to measure our emissions.
Our journey is being undertaken with the support of an external Sustainability Consultancy, to expedite it and ensure adoption of best practise in sustainability.
Net-zero Ambition
We commit to a year-on-year reduction in total carbon emissions in line with a 1.5°C pathway, aiming for net zero by 2035. To help us measure and manage our emissions, we have partnered with NetNada and as at November 2024 are finalising our onboarding to establish our baseline.
The climate change crisis requires radical optimism, something we have in our belief of achieving Net Zero.
For more details on this program, our materiality assessment or goals, please contact us.
SME Climate Committed
VDG Services is a proud member of the SME Climate Hub, a global initiative that empowers small to medium sized companies to take climate action and build more resilient businesses. Through the SME Climate Hub, we commit to lowering our impact on the environment through authentic action, halving our emissions by 2030. In making the commitment, we have joined the United Nations Race to Zero campaign.
Learn more here, SME Climate Hub.