VisionScoop Issue 6

ISSUE 6 • JANUARY 2019

VISION visionscape.group

VisionscapeGroup

WELCOME NOTE Welcome to the 6th Issue of VisionScoop!

A successful and bountiful 2019 to you!

We thank everyone for your hard work, time and dedication. Our 2018 would not have been successful if it were not for each and every one of you.

As we start off the year, we once again look forward to the unique contributions each member brings in to the Visionscape Group.

Let us seize 2019 with a strong aim and an unrelenting spirit to reach more milestones, surpass achievements, and altogether build a more robust future for the Visionscape Group.

Flashback to Ms. Eva Green at the 2018 EcoWASTE Exhibition, Abu Dhabi, UAE

VISIONSCAPE GROUP NEWS Visionscape Group

Visionscape African Holdings

Sellers Containers

This 2019, Visionscape Group aims to increase partnerships with governments, municipalities and businesses to enable these organisations to efficiently manage their plastic waste, with the aid of our waste management and resource recovery solutions.

Visionscape African Holdings continues to make strides, improving our footprint across the African continent. With a number of prospective projects in the pipeline, the team has built a strong foundation for the growth plans of the Group, ensuring longterm advancement.

Sellers Containers ended December 2018 on a high note with a 5-year unit lease signed

by Marcus Davies, Managing Director of Sellers Containers, and Brian Sellers, founder of Sellers. The lease is expected to support Sellers’ launch of the 1100-litre trade waste bin.

We are eyeing further growth in Europe and Africa, with expansion geared towards the Middle East, Asia and around the world.

Vision Petlon Polymers

VHub Intranet

Vision Petlon Polymers has acquired the Britannia Techno Polymer (BTP) order book and the Britamid brand from Texas, US-based Ascend Performance Materials through an asset purchase agreement concluded in December last year.

Stay up-to-date with the latest events and developments across the Visionscape Group by simply logging into VHub Intranet. From the newest projects we are working on to all our marketing materials, such as company brochures, VHub brings all the relevant information you need in one place. Got comments and suggestions?

Your opinion matters! Send your feedback to comms@visionscape.group.

The core of our solutions remains the same: To equip organisations with the tools and processes necessary to implement a closed loop model in their operations – the same sustainability model our businesses practices are hinged on.

The deal gives VPP access to all the specific grades of compounds currently sold under the Britamid trade name, while expanding its annual production capacity to 15,000 tonnes and reinforcing its position as a leading manufacturer of industrial and near prime compounds in PA6 and 66 in Europe.

VPP is also planning to launch a new marine grade PA6 compound based on 100% recycled recovered fishing nets.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Over $1b Investment Pours into Ending Plastic Waste Energy giant Total joins more than 25 companies in launching the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), a non-profit international organisation established to tackle the global plastic waste crisis.

The coalition has generated over $1 billion in investments committed by member companies such as Shell and Procter & Gamble to build recycling infrastructure, fund research and development, partner with governments and businesses, and organise clean-up activities.

One of the Alliance’s key focuses is to improve urban waste management systems, particularly along river systems where most marine plastic waste comes from.

“By contributing to the lightening of materials, plastics improve the energy efficiency of our everyday products and reduce our CO2 emissions. However, it is

critical to improve the management of their end-of-life to ensure they do not end up in the environment,” said Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining and Chemicals at Total.

The Alliance, which comprises companies that manufacture, use, sell, process, collect

and recycle plastics, plans to develop and apply scalable solutions to reduce and manage plastic waste, while promoting plastic reuse and recycling to achieve a circular economy.

international delivery marks VPP’s entry into the fast-growing African market.

local PET spinning industry and provide high-quality materials for non-woven spinning applications. It will also be used to strengthen the coating of cells in reengineered landfills.

FEATURE

Vision Petlon Polymers Penetrates African Market with Milestone PET Shipment Vision Petlon Polymers (VPP) shipped its first 26 tonnes of PET load to South Africa in the last quarter of 2018. The

VPP PET Shipment being loaded for shipment

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VPP is optimistic the milestone shipment will be the first of many close business relationships it is eyeing to build in the African continent, as part of its continued efforts to support emerging markets across the globe.

The shipment will aid South Africa’s

“We hope this is the future of distribution for us within the region of the world.”

– Gavin Rees, MD, VPP

VISIONSCAPE SPOTLIGHT

Eye On Sellers Containers Did you know that waste bins can be smart too?

Introducing the revolutionary smart bins, now available at Sellers Containers: SolarStreetBinTM and Internet of Things (IoT) Bin! These intelligent bins have built-in sensors working seamlessly with a cloud-based software that sends real-time SMS or email alerts to personnel, allowing users to remotely monitor the bins’ current litter levels via desktop or mobile devices.

The IoT Bin is powered by an integrated battery, while the SolarStreetBinTM is equipped with an on-board solar panel,

which powers its sensors and automatic motorised compaction system.

Once the sensors detect SolarStreetBinTM is reaching full capacity, the motorised compaction system will activate, compressing the litter inside to make way for more. This unique feature increases its capacity by up to 10x more. To prevent accidents and injury, SolarStreetBinTM has three safety mechanisms that automatically lock the bin to disable physical access once the compaction cycle begins.

The SolarStreetBinTM and IoT bin are made from recycled Zentec galvanised steel, giving it superior corrosion resistance, extreme durability and long life, while also providing an environmentally friendly solution. The bins can also withstand extreme ambient temperatures of -40°C to +55°C, as tested in Norway and UAE, respectively.

BITS & BYTES

ACCEPTABLE USAGE POLICY: Internet and Email Use of Visionscape internet and email is intended for business use only. All individuals are accountable for their actions on the internet and email systems.

INDIVIDUALS MUST NOT: • Use the internet or email for the purposes of harassment or abuse • Use profanity, obscenities, or derogatory remarks in communications • Access, download, send or receive any data (including images), which Visionscape considers offensive in any way, including sexually explicit, discriminatory, defamatory or libellous material • Use the internet or email to make personal gains or conduct a personal business • Use the email systems in a way that could affect its reliability or effectiveness, for example distributing chain letters, bulk emailing, or spam • Place any information on the internet that relates to Visionscape, alter any information about it, or express any opinion about Visionscape, unless they are specifically authorized to do this • Send unprotected classified (internal, confidential, strictly confidential) information externally • Forward Visionscape email to personal non-Visionscape email accounts, e.g.

Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.

• Make official commitments through the internet or email on behalf of Visionscape, unless authorised to do so • Download copyrighted material such as music, media, film, video files, etc. without appropriate and authorised approval from the IT Department • In any way infringe any copyright, patent, database rights, trademarks or other intellectual property • Download any software from the internet without prior approval of the IT Department • Connect Visionscape devices to the internet through non-authorised connections VISIONSCOOP

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FROM THE FINANCE DESK

THE WAY FORWARD Happy New Year.

As the Group CEO mentioned in his New Year address, “2018 was an eventful year for the Visionscape Group”. The Finance Team is back with a 2019 perspective and are ready to take up our roles and responsibilities.

As we know, finance is one of the major pillars of any organisation and an essential ingredient to a successful business.

Nowadays, a finance department has a broad range of roles to carry out within and

outside an organisation. The performance and success of any company greatly depend on how well the finance is handled. Keeping a close watch on the financing function is very important for the smooth operations of a company.

The way forward for finance functions: Current focus and future considerations and a shared service platform will be worked towards.

With the enhanced scale of operations,

increasing complexities and concentration of all critical and non-critical finance activities, there is an immediate need to have a clear role definition for finance, segregation of duties between corporate finance and BU finance, and a robust organisation structure to assist the right people focusing on the right business issues. Future considerations include robust planning, budgeting and forecasting, finance function improvement initiatives at a macro level and process level, with a solid governance and control framework embedded.

HEALTH & SAFETY

TOP 7 WORKPLACE SAFETY TIPS EVERY EMPLOYEE SHOULD KNOW The foundation of any successful workplace safety effort is one that encourages employees to identify unsafe behaviours and opportunities for improvement, while also making well-informed safety decisions during daily routine tasks.

Here’s the Top 7 Workplace Safety Tips you Should Know to help us help you create a safe workplace environment based on shared responsibility: 1. Be Aware of Your Surroundings Know the particular hazards of your job or workplace. Once you’ve learned these risks, you are able to keep clear of these potentially risky situations.

2. Keep Correct Posture to Protect Your Back If you work at a desk, keep your shoulders in line with your hips to avoid back problems.

3. Take Regular Breaks Take regular breaks to help stay fresh on the job. Schedule the most difficult tasks when your concentration is best, like first thing in the morning.

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4. Keep Emergency Exits Easily Accessible In case of an emergency, you’ll need quick, easy access to the exits. It’s also recommended to keep clear access to equipment shutoffs in case you need to quickly stop them from functioning.

6. Stay Sober Around three percent of workplace fatalities occur due to alcohol and drugs.

Staying sober at work improves your ability to exercise judgment, coordination, motor control, concentration and alertness.

5. Report Unsafe Conditions to Your Supervisor Your supervisor needs to be informed about any workplace safety hazards or risks. If they do not know, they cannot make the necessary adjustments. Provide information to your supervisor to help make your work space safe for you and your co-workers.

7. Reduce Workplace Stress Stress can lead to depression and concentration problems.

Common causes of workplace stress include long hours, heavy workload, job insecurity and conflicts with co-workers or managers.

Take your concerns about workplace stress to your supervisor to see how they might help you address them.

Culled from Arbill.com

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LIVING GREEN

Easy Ways to Cut Down Your Household Plastic Use

1. Say “No” to straws & plastic cutlery.

When dining out, skip using plastic straws, stirrers, and spoons and forks. If you order home delivery, ask them not to bring any plastic bag or cutlery and to use paper packaging for your food, if possible.

3. Find shops that offer product refills.

Shampoo, fabric conditioner, dishwashing liquid – these are some products normally packaged in plastic bottles.

The good news is, there are now grocery stores offering refills for these products, and you just need to find them. Be sure to have your own containers with you.

5. Ditch plastic bottles.

Plastic bottles take up to 450 years before decomposing.

You can do your part by bringing your own reusable water bottles or tumblers with you.

7. Avoid plastic cotton buds.

The UK and the EU are planning to ban plastic-stemmed cotton buds, one of the top 10 types of marine litter. Instead of using plastic buds, find paper-stemmed or bamboostemmed cotton buds.

2. Bring your own eco bag to the grocery.

This is one of the easiest ways to reduce your plastic use. Bring a sturdy and sizeable eco bag that can fit your groceries, so you avoid using multiple plastic bags.

Remember: A single plastic bag can between 10 to 1000 years to decompose!

4. Opt for sustainably packaged products.

Try to choose products packaged in cardboard, jars and bottles. For example, choose pasta in a box rather than one in plastic, and buy sauces in jars rather than those in plastic bags.

6. Bring your own thermos to the coffee shop.

Disposable coffee cups commonly have polyethylene lining inside. A better option would be to bring your own thermos, or if you can, bring your own coffee mug!

8. Use matches instead of plastic lighters.

Do you often light up scented candles at home? Use matches or reusable lighters the next time you need some aromatherapy, or you need to light up candles for a birthday cake.

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PEOPLE MATTER

SHOWING RESPECT IN THE WORKPLACE

BETTER LIVING

6 KonMari Steps to Declutter Your Home & Your Life Marie Kondo is a Japanese organising expert taking the world by storm with her unique and effective style of decluttering. Her systematic KonMari method promises you’ll have a home filled with things that give you joy, after you’re done.

books, gather all of them in one place.

This helps you see how many books you own in your entire home. The same goes with your clothes, which are usually spread out in your dresser, under the bed, or walk-in closet.

Ready to be Kondo’d? Here are six basic steps included in the KonMari checklist.

Follow the KonMari order of things.

Here is Kondo’s proper order of decluttering: clothes, books, documents, komono (miscellaneous items such as household items, kitchenware, makeup, etc.), and lastly, sentimental items.

Step #1 Make a commitment to tidy up.

Tidying your home takes time and effort.

You need to commit to investing your time and energy to complete the task, and not just temporarily, but for the longterm.

Step #2 Respect comes in many forms, and they’re all fairly easy to demonstrate once you’ve made the commitment.

For employees, employers, and managers, the rules of respect are the same.

Implemented regularly at work, these respectful actions can help ensure a happy, considerate and professional workplace for all.

1. Treat people how you’d like to be treated: with kindness, courtesy and politeness.

2. Encourage other co-workers to share their ideas and actively listen to others.

Never interrupt or put in your two cents before they’re finished.

3 Consider other people’s ideas in projects and deliverables, as it helps increase productivity and efficiency.

4. Don’t insult people or talk behind their back.

5. Don’t nit-pick, micromanage, criticise or demean others. If a direct report was not delivered according to expectations, give useful criticism and guidance for improved productivity.

6. Be aware of your tone, body language, expression and demeanour during all interactions. Some people can detect the slightest hints of what seems like disrespect, even if you aren’t aware of it yourself.

7. Treat people the same no matter their race, religion, age, etc. All people you interact with should be treated equally.

8. Include all necessary co-workers in meetings, lunches, and after work activities. Provide an equal opportunity for employees to participate in committees or improvement teams.

9. Praise much more frequently than you criticize. In addition, encourage employees to give praise to others where needed. This method is found to bring out the best in people and teams.

Culled from Syndeohro.com

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Picture your ideal home & lifestyle.

Visualising your ideal home and lifestyle allows you to determine your reasons for tidying up, and helps you see the specific goals you want to achieve. This fires your motivation to declutter!

Step #3 Finish the discarding process before organising your things.

Have you ever experienced organising your home, only to find yourself back in the same situation a few weeks or months later? Marie Kondo says this is because people tend to store their things without discarding unnecessary items. This tidies up your home only temporarily since your storage areas will be full of extra belongings, which will be more difficult to keep organised later on.

Step #4 Declutter by category, not by rooms or sections.

Instead of going room to room to declutter, organise your things by category. If you’re organising your

Step #5

The order helps you enhance your ability to determine which items spark joy, before you start tackling your sentimental belongings. It also helps you avoid getting distracted by nostalgia and using up your time reliving memories, rather than tidying up.

Step #6 Keep only things that spark joy.

The most unique aspect of the KonMari method is that it requires you to ask yourself this question: “Does it spark joy?” Pile all your clothes on the bed, hold each one close to you, and feel if it still brings you joy. If it does, keep it.

If not, discard it. Chances are, you will never use the clothes that didn’t spark joy, and they’ll end up occupying space in your closet.

This not only frees you from clutter, but also surrounds you with only the things that bring you joy.

VS BONUS: Instead of just throwing out the items you’ve purged, you can recycle or repurpose them, or donate them to charity. This also lessens the waste you generate.

QUOTE

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT Healthy options and alternatives for your everyday meals.

FRAGRANT RICE WITH AROMATIC TURKEY

“

One serving | Freezable

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

INGREDIENTS • 65g uncooked brown rice • Sprinkle of salt • 110ml low-sodium chicken broth • 260ml water • 235g turkey breast (remove most visible fat) • 7g coconut oil • 1⁄2 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice • 10ml low-sodium soy sauce • 135g baby spinach • 45g spring onions chopped • Handful fresh coriander • 7g toasted sesame seeds METHOD Preheat oven to 180 °C For rice: Combine rice, salt, chicken broth and water in a medium saucepan. Cover and bring to boil; keep covered stirring occasionally until rice is tender (about 3040 mins).

For turkey: Place turkey in a bowl, massage in coconut oil, then spices and finally soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper and place on a baking tray lined with tin foil. Curl up the edges of the foil to collect juices when cooking. Place in oven and cook, then turn half way through cooking. Remove and leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Finish rice: Drain rice when cooked; whilst rice is still hot, stir through spinach, spring onions, coriander and juice from the turkey tray.

To serve: Place a bed of rice; thinly slice turkey breast and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

CORE VALUES VALUE

Integrity We are committed to a high level of moral and ethical standards in all our dealings and duties.

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MEET

Full Name:

Maimuna Maibe Role:

Group Head, Sustainability and CSR Since:

January 2017 Q: What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?

A: The variability of my role is what gets me up in the morning. It is always changing, always evolving and I get front row seats watching the process of a simple idea grow into a global business. Every day is different, and it is a constant adventure.

Q: What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

A: I was in charge of capturing my friend’s surprise proposal on video. The event started and just before she said yes, I realized I’d forgotten to push record!

They had to repeat the surprise all over again, so I could get a video... Oops.

Q: Tell us something that might surprise us about you.

A: I have an inbuilt fear of being overweight.

Never been overweight but the fear haunts me, that’s why I am obsessed with exercise.

Q: If you could be any one for a day, who would it be?

A: Indra Nooyi, Chairwoman PepsiCo. She was CEO for 12 years and is amongst the world’s most powerful women. She is also an advocate for sustainable business models and social accountability under PepsiCo’s “Performance with Purpose” thought leadership. I am in awe of her refusal to sacrifice corporate sustainability in favour of short-term growth while also tripling the company’s dividends. I would love to be in her shoes for a day.

Q: What is the one thing you cannot resist?

A: Chocolate (I know it contradicts my previous answer, don’t judge me).

Q: If your house was burning down, what three items would you take with you?

A: Handbag, jewelry case and car keys

GREEN HUMOUR

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Q: Where is the best place you’ve travelled to and why?

A: Australia. I love the energy of the people, pristine nature and the excellent quality of life. Studying in Brisbane during the week and travelling to the outback at the weekends for activities such as snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns and enjoying culture at the Sydney Opera House.

Q: What is your greatest fear?

A: Failure Q: What is the greatest challenge you have had to overcome in your life thus far?

A: Losing my father Q: What have you always wanted to try, but never did?

A: Bungee jumping

PHOTOS JOURNEY SO FAR

Visionscape staff at Dubai headquarters celebrated the season of giving with an exciting Secret Santa gift exchange.

Marcus Davies, managing director of Sellers Containers, and Brian Sellers, founder of Sellers Containers, sign 5-year lease on a new unit to support the launch of the 1100-litre trade waste bin.

Shift Manager, Brian Franklyn, trains his successor, Dimitri Filippov, on Vision Gelpack’s daily operations.

[L-R] Dave Watkins, Charlies Neale and Ian Meek enjoy the Vision Petlon Polymers annual Christmas party.

CSR Team Lead, Chiweta Uraih, conducting a Visionscape Environmental Education Programme (VEEP) session at Ojo Junior High School, Lagos, Nigeria.

Karen Maddock and Phil Jones conduct an Internal Audit on ‘House Keeping’ at Sellers Containers

Visionscape African Holdings and Visionscape Sanitation Solutions celebrate Christmas with laughter, fun and karaoke!

Sellers Containers takes delivery of 4 metre CNC Gillotine, to support the company’s growth.

Visionscape International Holdings UK at the RECOUP conference in Peterborough, England, promoting the Visionscape brand.

CORPORATE ACTIVITIES

EVENTS

Nairobi Visit

CIWM Christmas Luncheon

Visionscape and China National Electric Engineering Co. (CNEEC) Business Development teams inspect the Dandora landfill in Narobi, Kenya.

Tom Picking and Nick Hamer, from the Business Development Team, with partners, CNEEC Business Development team and local project team for the Waste to Energy project we are participating in.

Nick Hamer makes friends with local project team and security personnel at the Dandora landfill.

Visionscape Business Development Team meets Governor of Nairobi, Mike Sonko.

Visionscape International Holdings UK at the Chartered Institution of Waste Management (CIWM) 2018 Christmas luncheon.

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