Inauguration of a waste sorting bin on the campus of the University of Mauritius, Réduit

On 14 September 2016, KPMG partnered with the NGO Mission Verte to inaugurate a waste sorting bin on the campus of the University of Mauritius, Réduit.

Mrs Nadia d’Unienville, secretary of Mission Verte, welcomed guests present and explained that Mission Verte’s role mainly consists of encouraging the Mauritian population to do waste sorting in order to reduce the waste cluttering our landfill Mare Chicose”. She stated that “Mauritius generates 450, 000 tonnes of waste per year and highlighted that «another way to reduce waste in our households is to do our own compost from kitchen waste. This volume, which represents around 70% of our wastes, can go elsewhere than at Mare Chicose and can become organic manure…”

Mr John Chung, Managing Partner, KPMG, also addressed the audience and declared that “social and environmental issues remain at the core of our business philosophy. We strongly believe that as a business we have a role to play in making Mauritius a better place, by being socially responsible. In fact one of our core values is to “Improve communities”. This core value drives our culture and business philosophy and also underpins our corporate social responsibility. He further mentioned that “at the global level, KPMG, is taking action on reducing our carbon imprint and addressing climate change. We are committed to reducing human’s impact on the environment as sustainability is an essential element of KPMG’s global business strategy. Around the world, our actions include:

• achieving ambitious carbon emissions reduction targets;
• developing new approaches to account for natural and social capital;
• supporting collaborative projects with partners such as the UN Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD); and
• serving as leading providers of climate change and sustainability services for our clients.”
  He also stated that “through this project, we really hope to sensitize the UOM students about the importance of recycling today, for a cleaner environment tomorrow. Recycling is not only important for making the environment a cleaner place, but also for reducing the use of natural resources, minimizing manufacturing energy demands and reducing the amount of garbage in landfills.”

Mrs Roomeela Mohee, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mauritius, highlighted that “the waste that we generate in Mauritius is completely different from the waste that is generated in the USA, Europe or even in Africa. The organic content of our waste in terms of moisture is 70% as compared to 20% in all other developing countries. So we cannot use the same technologies as them. This is why at UoM, there has been continuous work since 1989 on teaching and researching on waste management and applying this research to influence government policies and industries.” She also declared that “based on this work, composting facilities of 100,000 tonnes capacity has been developed, influencing the community; amongst the other 50 community projects on waste management they have worked on. In line with this, the University of Mauritius has been training graduates of different degree levels in areas including waste management as well as training new people to be ambassadors of the institution to promote good recycling practices and waste management. The university has also represented Mauritius on several occasions during international projects on waste management including how we should look at waste in a small island state.”

She concluded by stating that “this project is really a reward of all the efforts this university has been doing in this area for the past 25 years. It’s a recognition on the importance of waste management and I am so happy that the president of the chemical engineering society and all the students who are in this society have taken that as a project in a great campus initiative and have been able to secure the support of KPMG and Mrs d’Unienville from Mission Verte.”