of programmes to provide mentorship and technical support
for emerging farmers. In 2010, we launched the Standard
Bank Centre for Agribusiness Leadership and Development
in partnership with the University of Stellenbosch, to create
skilled mentors to assist emerging farmers. During 2012,
in partnership with TechnoServe, a non-profit economic
development organisation, we assisted 50 smallholder farmers
in the Mutale Municipality in an enterprise development initiative.
The R3.3 million programme supported the development of an
economically viable fresh produce sector, through mentoring
and technical support.
Another example of developmental investment as part of our
core business activities is our work to enable small businesses
to participate in the green economy, and to make green energy
accessible for low income communities.
Standard Bank’s programmatic CDM (clean development
mechanism) is a new type of CDM registration which works as a
collective mechanism for a range of smaller individual projects.
Traditionally, smaller low-cost carbon emissions reduction
projects were not able to access carbon credit revenue due
to high transaction costs. Standard Bank’s Programmatic
CDM enables organisations to avoid the cost of individually
registering an energy efficiency project, and to reap the benefits
of carbon credit generation much sooner, with less risk. The
registration process per project is quicker and simpler, and
annual verification costs are greatly reduced. Standard Bank
has established a number of Programmatic CDM registrations
covering renewable energy, corporate and household energy
efficiency, solar lighting, clean cook stoves, biomass generation
and waste management projects.
An example is our partnership with the Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan Municipality, in a CDM-registered Low Pressure
Solar Water Heater Programme. The bank has worked with the
municipality, housing developers and communities to facilitate
the installation of approximately 110,000 solar water heaters
in low-income housing developments, making available R22
million to assist with the rollout of the project.
Standard Bank believes that advancing social sustainability and
community empowerment is integrally linked to our social license
to operate. We select credible social partners and projects that
align to our business objectives and look for solutions that are
replicable throughout our operating regions.
Standard Bank has been around for over a century and a half.
We have every intention of still being Africa’s leading bank in
another 150 years. For that reason, sustainability is – and will
remain – a core part of the way we do business and a key focus
of our CSI initiatives.
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