Our vision regarding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
At Jones & Wagener, our vision is to be recognised as industry leaders in our specialist fields. Strategic objectives towards attaining this vision comprise of skills development and transfer, in order to maintain internal competencies; as well as the recruitment of highly skilled employees. Therefore, our people, those from our past, in our present, and those yet to come, require high levels of literacy and analytical skills which are founded on mathematics and science knowledge.
Our definition of CSR
Aligning our corporate citizenship with our vision means continuously committing our business to ethical conduct, while contributing to a better quality of life for our employees, their families and society, as well as positively impacting the environment in which we operate. Our leadership is committed to a sustainable investment towards CSR.
Our CSR focus
We focus our CSR towards sustainable and ethical business practices, as well as Corporate Social Investment (CSI) activities. In the South African context, maths and science literacy is a persistent challenge that is contributing significantly to the employability of matriculants and ultimately the high unemployment rates. Our focus is therefore the development of South African youth towards careers in environmental sciences and engineering.
Our CSR Initiatives
At Jones & Wagener we have a proud record of CSR. Below is a list of our CSR initiatives illustrating the importance we place on our social and environmental impact.
Social Responsibility
Each year Jones & Wagener’s social committee organises a staff participation event for Mandela Day. Over the years many staff members have enthusiastically volunteered. Past initiatives have comprised of the following; refurbishing girls’ rooms at the Village Safe Haven in Buccleuch, repairing and varnishing jungle gyms at the Nokuphila Primary School in Modderfoantein, painting a palisade fence and developing a vegetable garden at a nutrition education community centre in Soweto, and collecting non-perishable food items for the Louis Brandt Orphanage in Volkrust.
Initially called the Hundred for Hundred Project (H4H), SAYEP was formed in 2003 from the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) centenary celebration initiative under the leadership of Allyson Lawless, the 2000 SAICE president. Jones & Wagener became the sole sponsor of H4H in 2004. In so doing the company has, over the years, made a sustainable social investment in disadvantaged communities. In particular, H4H produced the first civil engineer from the deep rural Mambomvini area within the Msinga Municipality in 2009. Every year since then, at least five students from this area register for either a degree or diploma in Engineering.
SAYEP identifies previously disadvantaged black students with academic potential, places them in engineering studies at suitable universities and provides holistic support to the students throughout their engineering studies. Career guidance and recruitment is done through school visits during the first half of the year.
In 2015, SAYEP commenced a program of hosting mathematics clinics for grade 12 learners. Learners from seventeen high schools in Msinga and Umvoti areas in Kwa-Zulu Natal participated in the inaugural clinic.
Jones & Wagener look back at its twelve years’ involvement with SAYEP with a great sense of pride and also humility, knowing that we are able to positively change the course of young individuals’ lives, and also contribute to the advancement of the civil engineering profession in a meaningful way.
Since April 2013 Jones & Wagener has partnered with Eskom and continues to support the Supply, Localisation and Development (SD&L) commitments initiated by Eskom. We have housed three Eskom employees seconded to our head offices in Rivonia who gained practical design office experience which has surely been carried back to Eskom at the end of their respective secondment terms.
In 2015, we also donated laptops to Thabo Morapedi and Khulekani Sibanyoni, two top students in Mathematics and Physical Science at the Mabande Comprehensive High School in the Phola, Mpumalanga.
Jones & Wagener is contributing to the national narrative aimed at improving the available technical skills pool through annual commitment to providing bursaries and scholarships for the education of South African youth. In 2020, we are currently funding 10 students at tertiary institutions and since 2005 we have funded more than 50 undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications of young South Africans across the country. A significant proportion of these students have been absorbed, and are now employees at Jones & Wagener in various managerial positions.
Since establishment in 2015, our Education Foundation (NPC) has assisted three previously disadvantaged individuals with studies at primary school, as well as tertiary studies in medicine and mechatronics.
We are a Level 1 B-BBEE enterprise. Our continued efforts have seen Jones & Wagener’s level improve over the years as we invest towards socio-economic, enterprise and supplier development. We have implemented a tracking tool to monitor our B-BBEE scorecard. In 2016 our procurement strategy has improved our contribution to supporting SMMEs with our latest figures indicating a spend on EME’s and QSEs of 59 % and 11 % respectively. Procurement from black female owned enterprises makes up 30 % of the overall spend.
Environmental Impact
Jones & Wagener continuously explores innovative ways to limit our impact on the environment, not only by means of responsible designs related to projects, but also through in-house initiatives. It was therefore no surprise that 35 of the new car ports, constructed as part of the office densification and property rezoning exercise, comprised of a Photovoltaic (PV) System. The 68 kW system was commissioned during June 2016 to substitute part of our Eskom supply with clean renewable energy. Jones & Wagener hopes to expand on the system in future, further reducing our carbon footprint.
As an organisation we take responsibility for the waste produced through our actions. Jones & Wagener has been in partnership with a SMME waste collection organisation, in order to support the responsible disposal of our waste. Throughout our offices we have separate bins for recycling materials, as well as paper waste bins. All our waste paper and plastic materials are recycled.
In order to optimise our water utilisation we currently water our gardens at night by means of a timed sprinkler system.