When South African mining conglomerate Afrimat teamed up with legacy hemp firm Hemporium to refashion a constructing in Cape City with hemp constructing blocks, the story bought extra play than Henry Ford’s so-called hemp automobile.
We all know. We watch this stuff. Quite, we’ve employed some robots to observe them: social media likes & shares; hashtags, monitor mentions, impressions, attain, classes, customers. Metrics, metrics, metrics.
Afrimat’s authentic press launch confirmed up in enterprise media channels resembling Engineering Information, B2B Central, Enterprise Tech, South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, and even Voice of America picked up the story as did a pair dozen native media retailers downstream. Journey Noire thought it worthy. Linked-In and Fb went nuts with likes, shares and feedback.
Object lesson
It’s an object lesson in good enterprise communications, a uncommon one for industrial hemp. The constructing mission, mixed with Afrimat’s improvement of hemp-lime block know-how, and particular binders, demonstrates a honest try and contribute to environmentally acutely aware business. It makes the promise of sustainable constructing with hemp look critical.
Along with its industrial hemp enterprise, Afrimat has developed sustainability initiatives in renewable power, waste administration, environmental rehabilitation, and water conservation. The corporate is investing in photo voltaic power to cut back reliance on coal, optimizing mining processes to decrease CO₂ emissions, and recycling mining by-products to attenuate waste.
Afrimat additionally has initiatives in reforestation of mined-out areas, and has applied water therapy applied sciences to preserve water and stop contamination.
Coin flip
Flip the coin over: Regardless of Afrimat’s enterprise in hemp and the corporate’s rising picture as a participant in sustainability, that’s all in stark distinction to its core mining operations – for lime, iron ore, anthracite, and manganese – prime polluters that trigger vital hurt by carbon emissions, habitat destruction, air and water air pollution, and the discharge of poisonous substances like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and methane.
Flip it over once more: Afrimat’s efforts in industrial hemp replicate an unavoidable reality: large-scale companies with the monetary capability, sources, and infrastructure are wanted to put money into and drive innovation in sustainable industries. The dimensions of Afrimat’s operations permits it to put money into cutting-edge applied sciences and hemp-based supplies and to shout about these investments – often out of attain for smaller, less-capitalized gamers.
Hypocritical? Not essentially. Hemp can result in change, however change in enterprise all the time comes step-by-step, and requires backing from highly effective voices to achieve widespread acceptance. These voices can typically come from surprising locations.
The higher flooring of the constructing, which was renovated with hemp blocks, are lodge rooms.
Hemporium has a retail outlet within the mixed-use constructing at 84 Harrington Road.
