OUR SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY
Certification and Forest Management
GSEZ has made sustainability, traceability, and certification a central part of its priorities.
All of Gabon’s forest concessions are operated according to the sustainable forest management practices prescribed by the Gabonese Forest Code which ensures the natural regeneration of forests in the long term and the sustainable supply of raw materials.
In terms of traceability, since October 2018, GSEZ has benefited from the services of the independent Tracer-Nkok agency; the fruit of a partnership venture between FRM (Forest Resources Management) and the NGO Brainforest, which filters the logs entering the economic zone to ensure that 100% of the timber entering the Area is legal, traceable, and responsible.
By 2022, all the country’s forest concessions will be certified to improve the traceability of the wood as well as the respect for communities and workers.
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ISO 9001, 14001, 45001 certifications for GSEZ O&M
- Initiated certification process for forest concessions managed under GSEZ Nkok for which we are targeting achieving the certification by the end of 2021
A subsidiary of GSEZ, Gabon Advance is a forestry company that obtained a certificate in January 2019 for the responsible management of its 180,000ha of forest located straddling the provinces of Haut-Ogooué and Ogooué-Lolo.
CARBON AND ENERGY
In the past years, ARISE IIP has built a climate and biodiversity strategy to reduce its environmental footprint, invest in low carbon solutions and monetize environmental services and assets.
- GSEZ is the first carbon-neutral certified industrial zone in Africa
GSEZ has been awarded the ISO 14064-1 carbon-neutral certification for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. The certification provides a transparent third-party assessment of GSEZ’s carbon footprint and offsetting. In addition to its efforts to measure and manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we continue to work towards increasing the utilization of timber and renewable energy sources to supply GSEZ with carbon-free electricity. Our Inland Container Depot (ICD) is our current solution for low carbon transport.
Aera has been mandated to coordinate this GHG measurement and improve this data collection system. Swiss certification leader SGS has been appointed as the carbon auditor.
The inventory of GHG emissions included in the footprint assessment is based on the mandatory scopes of the Carbon Neutral Protocol methodology for Space/Buildings/Office spaces/Venue types. It indicates that the overall direct and indirect emissions encompassing Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 amount to a total of 50,037 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2019, 45,732 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2020 and 57,987 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2021. GSEZ emissions balance has been offset by the voluntary retirement of certified emission reductions from four supported projects.
“Gabon recently adopted a ground-breaking climate law to ensure that the country maintains its carbon positive position until 2050 and beyond. We are therefore proud to host Africa’s first SGS carbon-neutral certified industrial zone, the Nkok Special Investment Zone. This achievement is aligned with the government’s commitment to introducing structured mechanisms to measure and curb emissions at the national and sectoral levels” – Quote from the Ministry of Water, Forests, Sea, and Environment of Gabon.
Ever since GSEZ’s founding, the prime pillar of our activities has been a simple philosophy:
Growing with our society.
We believe in the practical implementation of Sustainable Development Goals to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
SOCIAL RESPONSBILITY AND CAPACITY BUILDING
At GSEZ, we firmly believe in sustainable development and our commitment to the Gabonese people is not based on one-off actions, but rather on long-lasting and consistent ones. Since its launch, GSEZ has ceaselessly supported local communities with dozens of initiatives.
Our Furniture Cluster & Carpenter Training Program was carried out at Nkok to support small carpentry businesses within the Special Economic Zone furniture cluster.
Our Furniture Cluster & Carpenter Training Program was carried out at Nkok to support small carpentry businesses within the Special Economic Zone furniture cluster.
Our Furniture Cluster & Carpenter Training Program was carried out at Nkok to support small carpentry businesses within the Special Economic Zone furniture cluster.
Other positive stories
SAFER
Establishment of EHS advisory cell “SAFER” to assist industries inside NKOK to enhance working conditions, labour compliances, and EHS aspects.
GSEZ is continuously working towards making the SEZ the World’s No.1 industrial zone in terms of providing safe, good quality labour and working conditions, and conducting environmentally friendly practices. As a major step towards this ambition, we set up SAFER, an EHS Advisory Cell, for industries within the GSEZ to guide the enhancement of QHES conditions at their premises.
At GSEZ, we take responsibility for ensuring that all our workplaces are healthy and safe for our employees, contractors, and visitors. This commitment, along with our goal of embedding a ‘zero harm culture’, means that it is vital to encompass quality, health, safety, and environmental best practice conditions (QHES) throughout our workplaces and practices.
Training for employees
GSEZ provided Firefighting and First Aid trainings through AAN for professional workers from industries in Nkok zone. During this exercise, approximately a 100 employees were thoroughly trained.
In the year 2018, we conducted a Defensive Training for nearly 150 drivers (from GSEZ and also for our sub-contractors). This training was provided by Bureau Veritas from November 2019 to January 2020 (for a period of three months). This greatly helped in reducing the number of accidents.
Circular economy initiatives
At GSEZ, we have taken on several circular economy initiatives such as wood waste management, plastic recycling, a charcoal plant, or even reusing tyres to build roads at Nkok.
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