First held in 2007, The SERAS has grown to become one of the largest awards events aimed specifically at promoting and rewarding corporate social responsibility and sustainability in Africa.
Originally focused on West Africa, the 2016 edition of the event saw the awards extended into Southern Africa with entries received from organisations in various countries, including Angola, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, and Ghana.
Investec Bank South Africa took home the overall prize with multiple wins in various categories, including, Best Company in Affordable and Clean Energy, Best Company in CSR/ Sustainability (Southern Africa), and Best Company Overall (most socially responsible company in Africa).
Investec’s entry was for their clean energy Aurora wind farm project on the West Coast of South Africa that produces enough energy to power 50 000 homes. During construction, it created 450 local jobs, and it will remove 5.6 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere.
With the success of Investec in the 2016 edition of the awards, South African businesses are encouraged to enter what are now, truly pan-African awards.
The SERAS has opened the competition further, with East African businesses now also eligible to enter. The team at The SERAS recognise that East Africa is one of the fastest growing, and most stable regions in Africa and has a well developed corporate and NGO sector, and all organisations from the region are encouraged to enter the awards within the various categories. The SERAS has registered 710 entries from 115 organisations.
The theme for the awards is 'Transformational Sustainability: From Social Responsibility to Social Impact', a theme that challenges corporates to ensure their social responsibility investments yield real world results.
At the onset of the millennium, world leaders launched an ambitious global mission to reduce poverty and enhance human development. Africa has been able to attain only a little under 15% of expected target impacts.
Sales of ‘green’ products in stores have doubled between 2010 and 2012, and green advertising tripled in Africa between 2011 and 2014. Unfortunately, however, a huge percentage of these advertising claims are actually ‘green washing,’ the term given to any marketing or brand claim around environmental or social issues that is false, misleading, or exaggerated.
This edition of the The SERAS seeks to highlight and reward those investments and interventions that lead to real impacts in communities, where organisations do business in the general society at large.
There are 25 awards categories that businesses can enter, including, Best Company in Poverty Reduction, Best Company in Eradication of Hunger, Best Company in Promotion of Gender Equality, Best Company in Provision of Clean Water & Sanitation, Best Company in Affordable & Clean Energy, Best Company in Industry & Innovation, Most Sustainable Cities/Communities Award, as well as the regional award for Best Company in CSR/Sustainability East Africa.
The competition is open to large, medium, and small scale, NGorganisationsns, as well as public sector organisations.
For more information, visit www.theseras.com. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.