Statement from CEO

The ever-growing Basil Read group is making steady progress towards our goal of extending our corporate social responsibility way beyond building the roads, bridges and power stations that form the framework of our economy and our society. We readily embrace our duty to enhance the quality of life of those we employ and the people touched by our operations across all our businesses, in our conduct and in our strategic plans for growth.

For nearly six decades, Basil Read has operated as a family business and these values continue to guide our group today. Four years ago, we aligned those family values with the triple bottom-line approach to reporting to stakeholders by integrating our economic, social and environmental performance in our annual report.

This integrated annual report is guided by the recommendations of King II, the Global Reporting Initiative and the United Nations Global Compact. We have also considered the expanded scope of the recently published King III. In many areas of sustainability reporting, we have made significant progress such as creating an equitable working environment for our people and developing their full potential. In the past two years, we have committed ourselves to the green-building approach in striving to optimise energy efficiency and reduce carbon footprints. These initiatives are detailed here.

We are committed to taking our role in South Africa’s transformation well beyond legislative compliance, and to entrenching global standards into our corporate governance. This approach guides our corporate social investment initiatives as well – elevating corporate philanthropy into making a sustainable difference by empowering communities.

Given the group’s very strong growth in recent years, it is taking time to integrate acquisitions, standardise systems and platforms and, most importantly, get to know the new stakeholders who are now part of the Basil Read family. This includes thousands of new employees, communities in new geographic regions with different needs and priorities, and new local and provincial governments with different integrated development plans. Considering the sterling work being done in bedding down the larger group, we believe we will be ready by the next financial year end to formally declare a GRI application level and take our place alongside the growing number of global companies as we embed sustainability into every facet of our business en route to making Basil Read a truly global construction group.

Marius Heyns
Chief executive officer