gareth ackerman
Leadership Award
Next time you grab something off the
supermarket shelf, give a thought to how it will be
replaced. Gareth Ackerman’s (WPO Cape Town)
vision stretches far beyond the sale of consumer
goods at South Africa’s largest supermarket chain,
Pick n Pay. He has been to the source of the food
chain – the farms and the communities that work
them – and realized just how fragile this supply
chain actually is. A second-generation chairman of
the company, he has been acutely aware of this fact
for the last 40 years and he’s introduced sustainable
measures at Pick n Pay, which, ironically, make good
financial sense too.
“We plough 7 percent of our net, after tax,
profits into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
projects,” says Ackerman. “Our business is about
consumption, but we realize we need to reinvest in
the source of these products to make sure we create
long-term food security.” This is a topic he feels
quite passionately about, and he’s not just talking
about supplying his own supermarket chain.
The pressure to find scarce crop-bearing land
world-wide has seen richer countries buy land in
foreign countries to run ‘virtual farms’, keeping
themselves supplied with a steady flow of fresh
produce, without much benefit to local markets.
The facts in Africa alone are quite frightening. Of
the 600 million hectares of arable land available
in Africa, 100 million hectares are owned and
managed by foreign countries.
No-one knows better than Ackerman that this,
along with climate change, is the biggest threat
facing our planet today – if good, arable soil is
taken away, so too is the food.
“Food security. This will be a major global issue
in the future,” predicts Ackerman. “My model to
counter this problem is simple, reinvest back into
the communities that invest in you.”
The percentage of profits Ackerman puts into
CSR projects is viewed as advertising and marketing
spend. Not too surprising then, as these items are
usually associated with some kind of return on
your spend. The returns for Pick n Pay have been in
the form of loyal customers, collaborations with
communities and food suppliers and a cost-saving
model brought about by examining each step
of the supply chain carefully. While researching
more planet-friendly packaging, for example, they
discovered cheaper options that saved the company
money. “One of the fundamental things I have
discovered about sustainability is that it saves you
money, or put another way, makes you money,”
explains Ackerman.
The UN Millenium Goals have had a major
influence on how he see’s his contribution to
the world. Formulated at the United Nations
Millenium Summit in 2000 and adopted in 2001
by world leaders, these eight goals are designed
to address the most pressing issues faced by the
planet today and have a sell-by date of 2015. Of
these, at least three apply directly to the work of
Ackerman: the eradication of extreme poverty
and hunger, ensuring environmental sustainability
and creating global partnerships for development.
While some countries have achieved many of
the goals and some are on track to achieve none,
Ackerman has adopted this charter on a personal
and business level.
“If there’s one blueprint we can all look to for
guidance on how well we are doing as sustainable
and responsible business’s, it’s the UN Millennium
Goals. Why reinvent a great social plan for
humanity when one already exists!”
Adopting measures to save the planet is no small
task, yet it seems as if everyone who is committed
to making a difference, however small, should adopt
an attitude of self-awareness in their approach. As
Ackerman concludes, “All people trying to make a
difference in the world should ask themselves: what
will I be famous for?” as he challenges other YPOWPO members to make a difference.
WPO Cape Town / [email protected]
thomas darden
Environmentally
Sustainable Business
Practice Award
“Having a philosophy about how you run
your business is very important,” says Thomas
Darden (WPO Rebel) founder of Cherokee
Investment Partners (CIP), a leading private
equity firm that invests capital and expertise in
brownfield redevelopment. The company’s track
connect / usa Columbia Business School Social Enterprise Conference: www.gsb.columbia.edu/students/organizations/sec/conference2010
10 \ Real Leaders