Lekela is committed to upholding the very highest environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards and ensuring we leave a lasting, positive legacy on the environment, our employees, and in the communities where we operate.
Each year, we look to find new ways to improve our sustainability and make a greater impact. This was as true as ever in 2022, so we wanted to provide a snapshot of Lekela’s year in numbers, to set out what we’ve achieved.
In the next few months, we’ll also be sharing deep dives on some of the ESG initiatives Lekela has established, and showing how these initiatives are helping to support biodiversity, mitigate climate change, promote gender equality, and much more.
Promoting sustainable operations
As a renewable energy company, contributing to the fight against climate change is at the core of what we do. In 2022, Lekela produced over 3,400 GWh of 100% renewable energy across our sites – a 20% increase on 2021.
Not only do we produce clean, affordable energy for communities across Africa, but we’re also committed to reducing Lekela’s own emissions. This can be seen across our operations in 2022:
- 2.67 million tonnes of CO2 avoided through our low-carbon energy generation;
- 2,670,000 m3 of water use avoided through conservation and the water efficiencies of wind power over other energy sources;
- 20% reduction in our Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon footprint during 2021 (measured during 2022) compared to 2019. This amounts to 4,322 tonnes of CO2e saved, a 20% reduction from the 5,379 accounted for during 2019;
- 8.3 ESG Risk Rating, awarded by Sustainalytics, with Lekela placed 1st globally out of the 691 utilities companies assessed in 2022.
Investing in the communities where we operate
Our ESG programmes all aim to have a positive real-world impact on the communities where weoperate. We look to work with the communities and invest in initiatives that will create a lasting social dividend. In particular, our projects seek to improve local education, develop local enterprise and protect the local environment.
In 2022, Lekela’s community investment has supported:
- 160 community initiatives run by Lekela across our countries of operation;
- 3.3m USD invested in community initiatives;
- 89,000 community members impacted;
- 53% of those supported were women and girls;
- 364 individuals supported with either scholarships, bursaries, apprenticeships or internships, 61% of whom were women and girls;
- 40 people trained to work in biodiversity schemes, helping to protect the local environment.
Celebrating diversity in our people
At Lekela, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive, safe and supportive place to work, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion within our organisation.
With people employed across Egypt, Senegal, South Africa and the UK, we have to be mindful of how we include and reflect the interests and culture of our teams. Additionally, when it comes to our site staff and contractors, our absolute priority at Lekela is keeping them safe.
In 2022, we achieved:
- 103 people as direct employees across all our sites and offices;
- 37% of our workforce represented by women, across our portfolio – placing Lekela above renewable industry benchmarks;
- 0.26 lost time incidents per 200,000 hours worked across the portfolio – significantly beating OSHA benchmarks for the industry;
- 40 peoplehired onto renewable energy focused trainee, apprenticeship or internship schemes, 50% of whom were women and girls;
Going further on sustainability
Whilst we’re proud of the work we do on sustainability, it’s not something we do alone. We work with partners across the world to help us make progress against our goals. That includes the contractors that help to build our wind farms and the experts that help us to assess and monitor our work. We also build close relationships with local community groups where we operate, to ensure that our plans fit the needs of the local community.
These partners are crucial in enabling us to go further with our sustainability work, as we look to continue to reduce our climate impact, support the biodiversity around our wind farms, increase our community contribution and maintain Lekela’s high operational standards.