5. Multi-criteria Decision Aid (MCDA)
6.1 The Cases
This section introduces the two companies used in the comparative case study. Climate change dynamics within their respective industries are also introduced in order to give a contextual understanding of each company‘s climate change drivers and motivations from an industry perspective. The climate change dynamics within the respective industries help to understand why the two companies are good cases to analyse comparatively. The industry overview reveals the broad climate change response areas of interest. This is especially relevant for the discussion and analysis section of the report, and in particular the analysis of bounded rationality and strategy decision making. The two cases are introduced below.
6.1.1 Tongaat Hulett
Tongaat Hulett is an agricultural and agro-processing business which includes integrated components of land management and property development (Tongaat, 2012). Through its sugar and starch operations, Tongaat Hulett produces a range of refined carbohydrate products from sugar cane and maize (Tongaat, 2012). Renewable energy, in the form of biofuel production and electricity generation and the water-food-energy nexus are important to the business (www.tongaat.com). Tongaat Hulett employs more than 42,000 employees during its peak milling season. The company‘s operational land footprint within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region amounts to approximately 550,000 hectares, with 274,000 hectares of this land owned or controlled by Tongaat Hulett (Tongaat, 2012).
Sugar Operations
Tongaat Hulett has low cost sugar operations in six SADC countries, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia and Botswana- under the Huletts® sugar brand. Tongaat Hulett‘s South African sugar milling, refining and agricultural operations are located on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, with sugar mills at Maidstone, Darnall, Amatikulu and Felixton, and a central refinery in Durban (Tongaat, 2012). The South African sugar product range offers a total sweetener solution including a range of high intensity sweeteners. An animal feeds operation, Voermol Feeds, is located at the Maidstone mill and this operation manufactures and markets a range of energy and supplementary feeds to the livestock farming community through the Voermol® brand (Tongaat, 2012).
Starch Operations
Established in 1919, Tongaat Hulett‘s wet-milling operation is Africa‘s largest producer and supplier of maize-based starch and glucose to a diverse range of South African and African industries. It also operates a dedicated Sorbitol facility which is located in Chloorkop in Gauteng, and has distribution networks and facilities in Zimbabwe, Australasia and the Far East (Tongaat, 2012). Using the wet milling process, Tongaat Hulett Starch manufactures a wide range of products, from unmodified maize starch to highly refined glucose products, which are key ingredients for local manufacturers of foodstuffs, beverages and a variety of industrial products. Its products include modified and unmodified starches, glucose, maltose and dextrose syrups, glucose powders, caramel colour, sorbitol, maize germ, high protein gluten meal, gluten feed and corn steep liquor (Tongaat, 2012). Toothpaste, soups, tomato sauce, mayonnaise, sweets, paper, board, braai briquettes, textiles, beer, spices, beverages, glue, intravenous drips and sweeteners are only a few of the industries currently making use of the products and co- products produced by Tongaat Hulett Starch.
Property Development
Durban/eThekwini, South Africa‘s third largest city, continues to expand into Tongaat Hulett‘s land holdings to the north and west. Over the past 12 years, Tongaat Hulett‘s development operation has converted some 2 600 gross hectares to development (Tongaat, 2012). The company is a proactive partner with governments and communities in this conversion process.
6.1.2 Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS)
Based in South Africa, ATNS is an Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) responsible for the air traffic control of approximately 10% of the world‘s airspace with the primary purpose being to permit airspace use and facilitate the efficient and safe use of airspace by separating aircraft to prevent collisions, organising and expediting the flow of air traffic and providing information and other support for pilots (www.atns.co.za). ATNS‘ controllers keep the aircraft they handle safely separated using internationally agreed standards. This is achieved by allocating different heights to aircraft or by arranging certain minimum horizontal distances between them. ATNS also provides aeronautical information used for all flight planning purposes, as well as alert, search and rescue coordination activities, implementation of terrestrial-based navigation structures, technical maintenance of navigation infrastructure and aerodrome services, training of licensed air-traffic controllers and other technical staff, and support for special events such as test and demonstration flights.
The air transport industry includes 1 715 airlines, with 23 000 aircraft serving 3 750 airports through a route network of millions of kilometres, managed by 160 ANSPs. Over 33 million people are employed in aviation and related activities, with more than 5.5 million people working directly in the aviation industry (IATA, 2009).
ATNS is in the airports and air traffic business, which places it in the high impact climate change category according to the JSE SRI‘s classification. It is a member of the Civil Air Navigation Service Organisations (CANSO), which is the global voice for companies providing air traffic control services worldwide. As an air navigation service provider, ATNS is regulated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and is therefore expected to follow the climate change response guidelines as set out by ICAO and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). For ATNS, therefore, climate change response is a key matter from an end-to-end aviation industry point of view, because greenhouse gas emissions and noise not only affects airlines, whose main pre-occupation is the amount of fuel their aircrafts burn, but also the quality of life for people living near airports and beneath flight paths which are geographically dispersed.
The key issue facing ATNS and the aviation industry is the need to meet their customers‘ and regulators‘ demands to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by reducing fuel-burn per seat
through how they control aircraft on a daily basis, which includes improving the efficiency of airspaces, route networks and the investment decisions made regarding new air traffic management technology. Flight planning and flight management tools that allow pilots to exploit prevailing wind conditions, calculate precise fuel loads, set different flight levels and speeds for an aircraft to achieve the most economic performance and determine the exact centre of gravity of an aircraft as it becomes lighter in flight, are some of the key activities which ATNS assists with in optimising the flights of aircraft, thereby increasing the fuel-burn efficiency and consequently reducing the amount of CO2 emissions per flight.