Accountability and sustainability
ACTING SUSTAINABLY
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
The most important space at Stor‑Age is the environment that surrounds us and that is why we continue to address sustainable practices in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy generation and storm water management and conservation. We strive to improve these aspects of our properties both as a commercial property owner and self storage operator in line with the changing environmental legislation and our own commercial objectives.
Operational store energy consumption
Our properties’ predominant energy consumption is grid electricity for lighting, elevators, general power, heating, cooling and ventilation. These cause ‘indirect’ off-site power station carbon emissions.
The following initiatives have reduced our properties’ electricity consumption:
- We install motion-sensitive lighting in all properties. We fit these at optimum distances to reduce the number of fittings and the energy consumed.
- We install LED light fittings inside and outside of all new properties, and retrofit them onto existing ones. LED light fittings save up to 60% of consumption versus standard fittings.
- We install solar panelled hot water cylinders to heat water in both the retail stores and security offices at many properties.
- Each month, we prepare and review a detailed analysis to assess energy consumption across the portfolio, with exceptions timeously dealt with through active management.
Photovoltaic (solar) systems:
Stor‑Age was the first self storage property owner in South Africa to install solar technology for three-phase power. Stor‑Age Durbanville is one of the first to enrol in Cape Town’s net metering programme.
Net metering allows consumers to generate more power than they need and put the excess back into the grid. Net metering effectively rolls over a net kilowatt to be used at night, at times of low self-generation or in the following month (due to the system having no storage capacity).
Following the success of the installation at Stor‑Age Durbanville (which went live in 2013 and reduces consumption by almost 80% compared to other stores in the portfolio on a like‑for‑like basis), we integrated the system at Stor‑Age Tokai in March 2017. We are assessing the effectiveness of the installation at this property, being our first Big Box store to be fitted with the technology. Subject to the confirmation of our projected savings profile, we will more actively integrate the system across the balance of the portfolio.
Storm water management and conservation
We have incorporated permeable paving into our external civil engineering design at a number of our recently developed properties.
Permeable paving is qualitatively different from traditional paving methods in that water is treated on-site before being discharged into both the natural groundwater table and storm water system.
SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
At Stor‑Age, we strive to make a sustainable difference. Recognising our role as a responsible member of the broader community, and in line with our Relevance Core Value, we aim to improve our tenants’ and employees’ lives as well as our community.
Our medium-term objective is to continue focusing our resources on fewer but larger projects. We recognise the importance of being an active member of our local communities, and we encourage our employees at the property level to develop close links with charities, schools, sports clubs and local interest groups.
In the year, we contributed more than R500 000 to support social initiatives.
Highlights of these initiatives include:
Santa Shoebox Project
The Santa Shoebox Project is an annual charitable initiative that collects 100 000 shoeboxes to fill with gifts for underprivileged children. We have steadily grown our partnership with them, and are now one of their main sponsors. This year, we provided drop‑and‑go points for donors and more than 12 000 shoeboxes, to be filled with gifts, to the public (up from 11 000 last year). Stor‑Age has become a fundamental contributor by providing convenient locations for donors countrywide, complementary shoeboxes, storage space, labour and transportation solutions as well as supporting the social media efforts of the Santa Shoebox Project.
Stor‑Age also provides year-round storage space to volunteers to collect, store and organise the large-scale national event. Employees enjoy the partnership and taken the project to heart by volunteering their time for the main collection days.
The Kidz2Kidz Trust
The custodian of the Santa Shoebox Project houses their operation at Stor‑Age Claremont in Cape Town. This year, Stor‑Age donated space worth approximately R50 000 for the trust’s operational requirements, which include the Kidz2Kidzprojects and the Santa Shoebox Project. The NPO is registered as a Public Benefit Organisation with the South African Revenue Service and is a level 4 B-BBEE contributor.
Disaster relief
Our social initiatives support three of our four Core Values – Relevance, Integrity and Sustainability. Due to the nature of the product, we are in the unique position to assist communities in their time of need. Recently we aided disaster relief after the Cape Town storm, and the Knysna, Hout Bay and Deer Park (Table Mountain) fires. We provided storage units for people who lost their homes, resourced firefighters and disaster relief managers, and acted as a drop off point for donations which we then transported to the relevant areas.
With the Knysna Fire Support Initiative, we encouraged over 150 000 people on social media to assist with the donations. We partnered with Uber, gaining traditional and online media traction. Uber couriered donations from people’s homes to the closest Stor‑Age properties, free of charge. Stor‑Age delivered 15 four-tonne trucks to the relevant causes.
School sports sponsorships
Stor‑Age strives towards meaningful interaction with our communities, and as such, we provide sports sponsorships to various schools. During the year, we continued sports sponsorships at Laerskool Raslouw, Hoërskool Oos-Moot and Laerskool Doringkloof.
By sponsoring sporting equipment, Stor‑Age is directly involved in the development of young sportsmen and sportswomen – we facilitate a richer sporting experience.
It’s your turn
It’s Your Turn, a charitable organisation focusing on the redistribution of clothing to underprivileged areas, have continued to partner with Stor-Age in the 2017 financial year. The organisation also looks to collect, and sell, matric dance dresses of which the proceeds are used to purchase school shoes for those in need. Stor-Age have assisted It’s Your Turn for over six years and continue to play an integral role in the logistics of this, and many other, charitable organisations.
Ryan Scott
It’s Your Turn
HUMAN SUSTAINABILITY
Stor‑Age is committed to developing its employees through effective learning, development and training opportunities. Our Learning and Development framework identifies 10 areas for intervention, for both head office and operations employees.
Stor‑Age has developed a range of training courses. These training courses are delivered in various modes; our e‑Learning platform, Edu‑Space, enables our employees to receive training and assessment simultaneously online across all our locations; we offer face‑to‑face workshops and refresher courses at our purpose-built training venues at our head office as well as Sunninghill and Lyttelton; where appropriate, specific and individual training intervention is also offered to employees. Our core training programme is complemented by management and leadership development programmes which are delivered both in-house and by external service providers.
Comprehensive job descriptions clearly set out each person’s role within the business, the key performance areas (KPAs), the activities and responsibilities within each KPA and the competencies required to deliver value in their role. Our Annual Performance Review and Personal Development Plan process provides a clearly defined platform for facilitating formal assessment and feedback to all employees by their immediate line managers, with a key outcome being the individuals’ primary training, learning and development needs in order to perform their primary function effectively.
Gavin Lucas
CEO
Stor‑Age has a formal Employment Equity Plan to reduce both gender and race related under-representation by 2020. The board acknowledges this situation and is planning to address the over-representation of male directors by 2020. The first five‑year plan stretches from 1 December 2015 to 30 September 2020; the second report against progress towards delivering on this plan will be delivered in January 2018. We provide fully funded life, disability and funeral assistance cover through an insurance policy to all our store-based employees, while our internally facilitated Medical Aid Scheme (Momentum Health) and our Group Retirement Annuity (Allan Gray) has steadily grown in participation.
In addition, a year end review provides an ideal opportunity for developing and enhancing the business culture. By bringing together all employees from across the country, everyone is able to truly experience and share the collective experience of Stor‑Age as a business in a relaxed and informal setting. Coupled with fostering new partnerships and sharing best practices, the year end review continues being a key contributor to the ethos and personality of the business as a whole.
Customer surveys are an integral contributor to the sustainability of the social and ethical aspects of business practices. During the year, over 3 800 surveys were completed where customers indicated a 95% satisfaction rate. The surveys in question are a key driver of the learning and development programmes that are administered to employees. They are also a key factor when determining best practices within the business. Engaging customers through this medium has allowed this crucial stakeholder group to influence Stor‑Age’s practices and processes directly and in a meaningful way.
Following the success of a flexible work-hours approach at head office in 2016, we introduced ‘Saturday’s off’ for our store employees during the year, with no noticeable change in productivity. Our store employees are employed as six day workers. In line with our Core Value of Sustainability, we identified one of the two middle Saturday’s of each month as an appropriate opportunity to allow employees to enjoy a full weekend break from work. In addition, we trialled and implemented the closing of the retail component of all properties on public holidays during the year, except those falling at or close to month‑end. Both of these initiatives have been well received by employees and contributed directly towards creating a healthier work-life balance and indirectly to creating a more engaged, sustainable and productive work environment. Not only are employees more refreshed, but they feel heard and taken care of – a testament to our non-hierarchal structure.
In order to manage our risk, it is important that stringent guidelines (which include courtesy procedures) are implemented and managed to ensure that high levels of health and safety, as well as Stor‑Age’s own standards, are maintained.
Stor‑Age is committed to compliance in the following areas:
- Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA A1 Part A and Regulations Part B)
- Basic Conditions of Employment
- Labour Relations Act
- Compensation of Injury and Diseases Act
- Skills Development Act
- Employment Equity Act
The relevant charts are displayed in a common area accessible to all employees at the head office and in all stores. Health and safety representative/s are appointed as required by OHSA to meet regularly and make relevant recommendations to management.
Stor‑Age endeavours to ensure safe conditions and premises for customers, tenants and employees, including but not limited to:
- Housekeeping and general cleanliness;
- Lighting;
- Ventilation;
- Emergency evacuations;
- Working electrical systems;
- Safe and working machinery;
- Hazardous chemicals; and
- Roadworthy, timeously serviced company vehicles.
Stor‑Age endeavours to ensure that the following items are not stored by tenants:
- Toxic pollutants or contaminated goods
- Firearms, munitions, or explosives
- Radioactive materials
- Hazardous goods
- Living plants or animals
- Food or perishable goods
- Cash and securities
- Illegal goods
- Waste
Stor‑Age holds regular risk assessments to take steps to eliminate risks, take and manage or enforce precautionary measures where necessary, and train or educate all employees accordingly. Systems of evidence are maintained at head office and in all stores.
Particular and specific policies and procedures are distributed and followed, covering the following topics and issues:
- Health and safety representatives
- High-risk equipment/machinery/facilities — lifts and hoists
- The complementary removal van service
- Diesel generators
- Contractor entry and exit logs
- Medical emergencies and first aid training
- Fire safety and related training
- Evacuation procedures
- Hazardous chemicals
- Incident/accident reporting
Stor-Age Staff Conference
MEET Matthews
… My decision to join Stor-Age was purely grounded in the success of the company and the prospect of its exponential growth. I was inspired when seeing how the executive team had managed to clearly communicate the mission statement and how they involved a like-minded workforce in ensuring its fruition.
For me, this has been the key aspect of being a part of Stor-Age, especially being exposed to an environment where an entrepreneurial mindset is encouraged in the interest of furthering the collective agenda …
Matthews joined Stor-Age as an Assistant Operations Manager. Within a year, his strong performance at a number of properties provided the platform for him to become a Store Operations Manager. He has since been appointed as a Central Sales Specialist at head office where his efforts are directed at making a meaningful contribution to the Stor-Age customer experience.
Matthews Mogale
Central Sales Specialist
MEET Bernice
… Being part of a company that lives out its values has been my inspiration for contributing to the growth and success of Stor-Age. Values drive us in all aspects of our lives, they define us as people, not only as a business.
In my experience as an employee of Stor-Age, our values have provided the foundation which has underpinned the success of our company and its people …
Bernice joined Stor-Age as a Store Operations Manager in Boksburg and within a year was appointed as a Senior Operations Manager. Currently managing one of Stor-Age’s recently opened Big Box properties in Sunninghill, her responsibilities also include training new store based employees and providing support to the Learning, Development and Training team based at head office.
Bernice Human
Senior Operations Manager
MEET Schalk
… Stor-Age had a clear vision and direction from day one. Its current growth has therefore been anticipated and catered for in the design of its systems.
This foresight, and the fact that Stor-Age embraces the use of technology, ensures that the systems that support the company’s strategy remain relevant and sustainable …
Schalk joined Stor-Age in 2009 as a financial controller in the finance team and also took on the responsibility of coordinating the IT function. In 2014 he was promoted to ICT Manager, leading the team responsible for maintaining and developing IT infrastructure systems and technology solutions.
Schalk Lesch
ICT Manager
MEET Busi
… I am amazed and humbled by how I have grown as a person at Stor-Age, especially for someone who didn’t know what storage was when I joined the business.
Working for Stor-Age has been a rewarding experience, the skills training offered continues to be a major contributing factor to my growth in the business. Stor-Age is not just a company, it’s an extended family …
Busi joined Stor-Age in 2014 as an Assistant Operations Manager at one of our flagship property’s in Brooklyn, Pretoria. She later joined the team at Stor-Age Lyttelton ensuring continued success and has recently been promoted to Store Operations Manager at Stor-Age Garsfontein.
Busi Maswanganye
Store Operations Manager