Sustainability
Health and Safety
Alufer’s objective is to set up a work environment where the Company strives to achieve a ZERO harm to the workforce, contractors, clients and visitors as well as for the local communities. To achieve our objective, we will:
- Engage in visible and felt leadership to promote and maintain a positive safety culture, behaviour and awareness.
- Relentlessly communicate on the importance of occupational H&S and make sure that every person working or visiting the premises are aware of their role and responsibilities towards their own safety and the safety of each and everyone on the project.
- Set up world class targets, needing constant action and improvement to be achieved, thus constantly challenging our performance.
- Integrate Health and Safety into the business strategies and processes.
- Actively and constantly monitor H&S performance to ensure we maintain an optimal performance.
Environment and Biodiversity
We recognize environmental and biodiversity management as an integral part of our business and aim to preserve the natural and physical environment affected by our operations. We will:
- Aim to minimize and mitigate adverse environmental impacts in accordance with internationally recognized business best practice.
- Strive to develop projects which do not degrade ecosystems, either those on which they depend for operational success or those on which others depend for their wellbeing or livelihood.
- Specifically, Alufer aims to achieve “No Net Loss” (NNL) of biodiversity or of priority ecosystem services as a result of its operations and achieve net gain on critical habitats.
- Use natural resources sustainably, reduce our direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and work with other organisations, governments and groups to address climate change.
- Design projects to reduce and mitigate harmful emissions to air, water and land and aim to integrate pollution controls and minimize impacts on the environment by implementing a number of Environmental Management Plans.
- Work with our internal and external stakeholders to mitigate the environmental impacts of our product life cycle and supply chain.
- Commit to the integration of biodiversity conservation considerations into environmental and social decision making and in the search for sustainable development outcomes.
- Recognise the importance of conservation and responsible management of water as a key business, environmental and societal issue.
Communities
We understand the importance of contributing to social and economic development in our areas of operations. We will:
- Respect the culture, customs, interests of communities, including vulnerable groups.
- Manage cultural heritage in consultation with relevant communities and national cultural heritage specialists.
- Work with partners to make sustainable improvements to the quality of life of the Guinean people, in particular those in our area of operation.
- Align social development programs with existing Guinean institutional strategies.
- Work towards building a common platform for information, consultation, dialogue and participation with concerned and interested stakeholders.
- Engage with local authorities, community representatives, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and other interested parties to support projects that benefit the communities associated with our operations.
- Consider the inputs, including suggestions and grievances, provided by our stakeholders and adapting our programmes accordingly.
- Support economic development by working to enhance the economic benefits in the communities we operate by maximizing local employment and local purchases of goods and services.
- Consider integrating and sharing project infrastructure with the communities, when possible.
- Promote self-sufficiency and sustainability of our activities in our neighbouring communities.
Our People
The Company recognizes the importance of creating and maintaining a positive working climate. It will endeavour to attract high calibre employees and ensure that all employees and contractors work in a safe environment and are treated with respect and fairness. The Company and its contractors shall:
- Provide capacity building and development opportunities.
- Provide a grievance mechanism for workers (and their organizations, where they exist) to raise workplace concerns as per the specific human resources Grievance Policy.
- In the event of requiring collective dismissals, carry out an analysis of alternatives to retrenchment. If there are no viable alternatives to retrenchment, a retrenchment plan will be developed and implemented to reduce the adverse impacts of retrenchment on workers.
- Employ and promote workers on the basis of ability and accomplishment and in compliance with the Guinean labour regulation.
- Treat people fairly and with respect and not tolerate any form of discrimination, bulling, harassment or violence.
- Recognize the importance of diversity and promote equal opportunity regardless of culture, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, political views, and ethnicity.
- Promote and maximize direct and indirect employment from the host communities.
- Communicate and consult with the workforce in a timely and culturally appropriate manner.
- Promote merit based recruitment on technical ability and work ethic.
- Recognise the rights of the employees to form and to join any workers’ organizations of their choosing, without interference, and have the right to bargain collectively.