Orange Sierra Leone (OSL), in collaboration with Youth Alliance and Initiative for Innovation and Environmental Development, has last Friday 5 May 2023 ended the Environment, Health and Safety Week with the planting three thousand (3000) trees at Mortomeh, Regent in the Mountain Rural District, with the theme: “Taking Sustainable Steps to Reduce our Carbon Footprint”.
OSL joint tree planting drive is aimed at reducing the risks of flooding, raise awareness on environmental safety and protection for Mortomeh and Freetown as a whole.
The loss of these trees canopy has directly affected catchment areas for water reserves thereby exacerbating the risks of landslides, flooding, and coastal erosion as well as the loss of trees and vegetation cover also threatens biodiversity.
In his video message to all staff, during the EHS Morning Coffee session, Orange Sierra Leone Chief Executive Officer, Sekou Amadu Bah registered OSL commitments towards sustaining cultural values that prioritize environmental health and safety issues. Bah observed that Climate Change is a critical issue that affects everyone, which is why Orange SL being a responsible corporate citizen recognizes the need to take sustainable action by reducing our carbon footprint, hence the need to increase the company’s renewable energy ratio target by optimizing its operations and investing in renewable energy consumption.
CEO Sekou Amadu Bah disclosed that Orange’s commitment towards reducing our carbon emissions is in alignment with the Group’s strategy to lead the future which prioritizes environmental responsibility with the aim of protecting and preserving our environment for future generation.
“As individuals and as a company, we have a responsibility to protect the environment. We believe that everyone has a role to play in reducing the impact of our daily activities on the planet. It’s important to recognize the crucial role that the environment plays as it affects our businesses, customers, employees, and communities. “Nature will be better without Human, Humans need nature. Nature does not need us. The whole world would be green if we did not exist. Nature exists to make our lives better,” he said.
In an overview of the week-long event, the Public Relations Officer OSL, Mabel Mason, disclosed that the week was set aside as part of their commitment towards preserving and ensuring that they protect the environment from climate change. She continued that the week was also set aside to raise the awareness among their staff members, stakeholders and the county as a whole about the impact of damaging the environment and how that can drastically affect their operations as humans.
She highlighted that, at the start of the week, they were taken through by an Environmental Protection Agency Representative on environmental health and safety and a host of other engagements throughout the week.
‘’This is a call to action for all as long as you are a human being. The environment does not need us to survive and to succeed. We however need the environment on the contrary. We cannot survive without the environment, but the environment can survive without us.” she noted.
She said everyone has the responsibility to preserve the environment, does things that will encourage the continuation of human existence and how people must not burn trees adding that if they cut down one tree.
On the significance of Environmental Health and Safety in daily lives, the Human Resource Director who also doubles as the EHS Chairperson Agnes Songa, informed that EHS involves the process of identifying, assessing, and controlling the risk associated with our activities, products and services that could impact our lives.
The weeklong activities were climaxed with OSL employees planting of 3,000 trees at the August 14th 2017 mudslide site at Mortomeh, in the Mountain Rural District, led by the Orange Sierra Leone CEO, Sekou Amadou Bah, in partnership with Youth Alliance and commonwealth.
