2022 Sasol Sustainability Report - Book - Page 43
INTRODUCTION
SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE AGAINST OUR FOCUS AREAS
DATA AND ASSURANCE
GROWING SHARED VALUE (CONTINUED)
Economic transformation (continued)
Women in Engineering Business
Incubation Programme
Building sustainable small businesses:
How ‘Built to Last’ saved the day
We have partnered with WomHub
to launch a Women in Engineering
Business Incubation Programme.
We successfully hosted the remaining three chapters of the fourpart ‘Built to Last’ SME webinar series launched in 2021. The goal of
the series was to empower small business leaders to learn, connect
and be inspired to take charge of the growth of their businesses.
FEATURE STORIES
The programme has been designed to actively
support and develop South African women-owned
small, medium and micro-enterprises in engineering
and technology. Fifteen qualifying South African
women entrepreneurs are participating in the
two-year-long virtual and physical incubation
programme which kicked off in March 2022 and will
run until end-February 2024.
Through this partnership with WomHub, we seek
to deliver the first cohort of credible, future-fit,
women-owned and led businesses in STEM sectors.
With a global shortage of women entering careers
in STEM, enabling the success of women-owned
businesses in this space will contribute to addressing
the access gaps and empower under-represented
groups who are disproportionately excluded from
opportunities in this sector.
The series provides meaningful insights that can be applied by SMEs to unlock
sustainable growth, navigate through disruption and identify opportunities to
optimise for advancement.
The events gave the hundreds of SMEs in attendance exposure to industry experts
from various sectors, who offered practical insights to guide small businesses.
The webinar series was centred around the following themes, in four chapters:
NEW PERSPECTIVE FOR PPE: SASOL’S SME PPE UPCYCLING PROJECT
• Chapter 1: Power to Survive was held in May 2021 and addressed topics
aimed at empowering SMEs with survival tools and steps to take to ensure
business continuity following devastating business disruptions such as the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest, or unfavourable economic
conditions.
The pilot project aims to demonstrate innovative ways in which used Sasol PPE that is no longer fit-for-use in
the plant area can be upcycled to create high-quality, long-lasting products to maintain value and create jobs.
As part of the pilot project, five SMEs from the textile and recycling industries were provided
PPE overalls that were due to be discarded, to create new products. The SMEs selected from
Secunda, Sasolburg, Soweto and Ekandustria upcycled the used overalls into various products
including bucket hats, lunch bags, pencil cases, chair bags and tool bags.
The programme offering includes technical support, mentorship and coaching to the SMEs
provided through a clothing manufacturing consultancy, as well as brand and marketing
platforms and support to enable increased exposure to their products and build independent
digital media management capabilities.
SASOL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022
42
• Chapter 3: Upgrading and Optimising covered: mental health for small
business leaders and maintaining mental wellness in small workplaces;
tools for strengthening internal business infrastructure by exploring the
people and compliance matters impacting the successful running of a
small business; enabling technologies SMEs should be adopting to increase
efficiency and minimise risk; and customer-centricity to help SMEs adapt
to ever-changing customer needs.
• Chapter 4: Forecasting and Thriving featured topics to prepare SMEs to be
forward-looking with a strong focus on future trends and the transition to
a low-carbon economy.
The entire series has been packaged into an online platform. Through this,
SMEs can access the tools and videos from the series, along with any ancillary
tools that have been developed in the past year.
FEATURE STORIES
FEATURE STORIES
• Chapter 2: Opportunity to Improve focused on unlocking internal
opportunities for improvement and accessing funding to drive growth.