“Controlling the sustainability activities in the right way can make this area a real added value to our business success.” - how Methvin Tanner, after years of NGO work, helps to restructure the sustainability initiatives of Spier Holdings.

Methvin Tanner, Director of Sustainable Development, Spier Holdings, Lynedoch, South Africa

We read about enterprises that take sustainability seriously and that even hire a person to take care of this field. But we have never met such a professional before and, frankly speaking, did not expect to meet one in South Africa. But we did – Tanner Methwin is Head of Sustainable Development at the Spier Holdings and we met him in one of Spier’s hotels in the famous wine yards in the beautiful landscapes of Stellenbosch.
Methvin explained to us that sustainability is one of the basic building blocks of Spier Holdings strategy and its basic values. The strong attitude and commitment of the owner family is demonstrated in all of the holding’s activities and is summarized in the latest sustainability report: “Our vision is to become a model of transparency, accountability, corporate governance, citizenship and sustainable development within the private sector. Spier constantly measures, reports on and seeks to improve the impact we make on the economy, environment, and on the reversal of social inequities. Although there are a broad range of issues which we measure and report on, our focus for fiscal year 2004/2005 is to make a significant impact on employment equity, economic development, health and safety, and environmental conservation.”
Methvin represents this culture of Spier and you can read some of his statements below. You might read more about Methvin’s thoughts and his work for Spier Holdings in our book "MyImpact".

Selected quotations from Methvin Tanner:
“Spier is located within the majestic wine lands region of South Africa. All of our businesses operate within the Cape Floristic Province, which is one of the six floral kingdoms of the world. We are blessed with magnificent mountains and waterways which surround or flow through our various properties. It is within this construct that we have taken on the role of environmental custodian for our business footprint.”

“Our environmental approach is based on a key ecological principle of creating a cyclical, rather than a linear flow of resources. We have created a land development policy, which guides all current and future growth. Additionally, we are committed to using fewer resources and to ensuring that our current resource requirements are met in a way that does not impinge on the needs of future generations.”

“Concerning employment equity Spier’s commitment goes far beyond simply complying with legal requirements. In 2004/05 we will e.g. implement various affirmative action measures. Our main goals will be to ensure that the number of “people of color” in all management positions increase by at least 10%, we will enhance the type, quality and focus of our training and development for “people of color” and ensure that we are fully compliant with the Basic Conditions of the Employment Act.”

“In the area of economic development we are committed to developing the local, regional and national economies, as well as to eliminating social inequities that still exist in these economies.”

“We try to allocate at least 50% of our annual expenditure to procuring goods and services from local, small and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) businesses.”

“In all of our businesses we operate with a consideration of basic ecological principles. That means, for example, that we increase the amount of waste we recycle (at least 65%), reduce our greenhouse gases emissions by changing our consumption patterns and using energy-efficient devices and reduce the fresh water consumption by 10% by expanding water re-use and reducing industrial water usage.”

“One of our next steps will be to analyze the sustainability efforts of our 1.500 suppliers and help them to work more sustainable in the future.”

“Personally, I like the work for Spier a lot, because I can see the improvements we make almost daily. That gives me a lot of satisfaction.”

Some background on Methvin Tanner:
Methvin Tanner has been working in South Africa for more than seven years for different NGO’s on a variety of projects.
In autumn 2003 he took the Spier assignment to coordinate all the different sustainability initiatives of Spier Holdings and to develop a coherent sustainability strategy. He integrated all the small and separate initiatives in one sustainability concept and discussed it with the top management team. Linking the sustainability activities in a way that they contributed to the overall business success was one of the most important things. To do this, he had to develop, among many other things, a customized measurement and controlling system for Spier. Apart from refocusing sustainability internally, Tanner built up relationships to important external stakeholders and think tanks, which constantly bring new insights to further improve the sustainability activities of Spier.
The next big step will be to restructure the Spier supplier base according to the sustainability of their operations, processes and products.

Some background on Spier Holdings:
The Spier Estate was originally founded in 1692. In 1993 Spier was bought by the Enthoven family who immediately began to restore and expand the Estate. Spier owns and operates two core businesses within the hospitality and wine industries. The first is Spier Leisure Holdings, which includes a hotel, property development, restaurants, conference facilities, golf course and retail outlets. The second main business is Winecorp Holdings, which includes vineyards, winemaking, and bottling facilities. Spier also has interests in various other businesses including a nursery and the treatment and production of organic waste.

If you would like to get to know more about Spier please visit www.spier.co.za,
or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.