The role of environmental management for businesses in South Africa is two-fold:
- to protect the environment from the effects of manufacturing on resources and the waste and by-products generated in this process and
- to protect your business from non-compliance fines and penalties for non-compliance with legislation.
For the business owner in South Africa these legislations encompass mainly the following:
- Resource conservation and utilisation
- Waste management and pollution control
This means monitoring your releases of chemicals and other by-products to the local air, water, or waste streams.
Our clients face complex, environmental challenges in every stage of their business. We help setting strategy, support our clients’ environmental, health, safety and sustainability needs across the entire lifecycle of the business
The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) provides the underlying framework for environmental law in South Africa. It mainly encompasses natural resource conservation and utilization as well as enforcement of these issues.
The regulation of Waste Management in South Africa has significantly increased and can be very onerous/complicated. There has been a significant increase in compliance requirements and potential liabilities for waste generators, transporters, and waste managers.
Important changes to the National Environmental Management Waste Act, (Act no 59 of 2008) has been made by Government Notice 242 of 17/3/2017. This Notice gave directions for the substitution of Category C of the Waste Management Activities list and now includes that any premises that has the capacity to store more than a 100m³ of waste continuously must now register with the relevant authorities.
It is important to be aware that waste generators remain responsible for their waste (‘Cradle-to-Grave’), and must ensure that they and their service providers (waste transporters & managers) are legally compliant, and able to manage waste in an environmentally sound manner.
A person convicted of an offence in terms of certain sections of the National Environmental Waste Act (Act 59 of 2008) is liable of a fine up to R10 000 000, or imprisonment up to 10 years, or both.
Sansafe has considerable expertise to steer your company safely through the myriad of legal requirements to achieve and stay legally compliant with environmental and waste management legislation.
We have an intimate understanding of local conditions and understanding of stakeholder’s concerns. We follow a structured approach to allow efficient management of the system while assisting management to make informed decisions to improve environmental performance. We are well known for our appreciation of client requirements and on-time delivery of high-quality services.
We offer the following services:
- Setting up, implementation and management of environmental management systems, including ISO 14001:2015 accreditation.
- Guidance in understanding and management of local regulatory processes and procedures
- Auditing of ISO 14001:2015 management systems.
- Drafting of Integrated Waste Management plans (IWMPs) (including all aspects of the waste management hierarchy (reduce, re-use, recycle, recover, disposal)
- Registration and accreditation of Waste Service providers (Waste transporters and waste managing facilities)
- Assisting during implementation and monitoring of integrated Waste Management Plans
- Setting up and administration of systems to ensure efficient management to minimise environmental risk, identify opportunities and improve environmental performance.
- Monitoring and auditing of compliance
- Registration of Waste Generators and reporting on the Integrated Pollution and Waste Information Services (iPWIS) of Western Cape
- Registration of Waste Generators and reporting on the South African Waste Information System (SAWIC) of South Africa
