The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) has established an environment unit in commemoration of this year’s World Environment Day and lent its voice to the call for a greener and healthier environment.
At the event to mark the 2022 World Environment Day which was held at IBEDC’s headquarters in Ibadan on Tuesday, June 7, the company said it was time to start caring about the environment.
In his speech, the Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer (MD/COO), IBEDC, John Ayodele, said the essence of the day was to create the consciousness of a healthier and cleaner environment for all.
Ayodele noted that the walk towards achieving a friendly environment should start with individuals being mindful of how their wastes are disposed of and taking deliberate steps towards stopping hazardous actions.
“So many things are killing people today because of exposure to these hazardous wastes all around us. Don’t say people do it so you do it. One by one, if all of us take care of our environment, we are going to influence others on how to take care of the environment. The environment happens to be the only source open to us as long as we are breathing. From inside this place to our offices, to the road, to our homes, to social events, we encounter the environment. We should care and our number one interest is that we should influence those around us. All of us have a responsibility towards creating a cleaner environment, a healthier environment for all of us to exist in,” the COO said.
In his opening remarks, the Chief Technical Officer, IBEDC, Akin Abiodun, noted that human activities, through modernisation, have led to the degradation of the environment.
He remarked that the environment unit of the IBEDC was established to address the impact of this degradation.
“This year’s edition is so special in the sense that it is a great milestone to mark 50 years since the first conference was held in Sweden in 1972. IBEDC, being a socially responsible and environment-compliant organisation, decided to mark this day.
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“When human beings came into the world and we started modernising, we started to create many challenges to the environment; we started polluting the environment, the air was polluted, there is plastic pollution and so many things that are polluting the environment. Today, people have come together to say that we need to talk about it and we need to ensure that the global warming that affects the lives of many people is reduced. IBEDC, in the same manner, has created the environmental department to ensure that we have a good environment and that we don’t further pollute the environment,” Abiodun said.
While delivering a lecture titled, ‘Sustainable approaches towards promoting ‘Only one earth’ in the 21st century in the electricity distribution industry,’ Dr Kayode Openiyi, the Chairman, Nigerian Environment Society (NES), Oyo State Chapter, who was represented by Olusegun Ogundele, said businesses have a lot to gain from adopting policies that ensures they operate in a healthy environment.
Ogundele noted that many of the Sustainable Development Goals support better treatment of the environment while stressing that human decisions today would ensure there won’t be future pandemics like COVID 19.
“There is no other planet; we have only one planet and the best thing for us now is to begin to live in harmony with our environment. The 2022 World Environment Day is very significant because we are having a World Environment Day in the process of recovering from a global pandemic.
“What we are saying is that everyone of us have to be responsible to our environment, we have to take care of our environment, we have to make sure that our environment is as important as our health or even more important because it is when your environment is okay that your health is okay,” he said.
As part of efforts to ensure a healthier environment, Mr Lawrence Eze, the head of the newly established Environment Unit of the IBEDC unveiled roadmaps for the implementation of the tenets of the World Environment Day.
The roadmaps include the reduction in paper usage which he said would save the company millions of Naira annually; the ‘watch your waste’ initiative aimed at encouraging the staff of the company to adopt greener lifestyle through waste reduction, waste reuse and waste recycling initiatives where staff would separate their wastes into different categories before disposing; and the green competition that would run yearly across the company’s regions, business hubs and service centres with prizes for those that comply with the green initiative.
“These three initiatives that we outlined will help the IBEDC to move close to a greener lifestyle. It would not just contribute towards making our work environment healthy and cleaner but also contribute towards savings; it will help us as a business to cut down and save some money and to a larger extent, the environment. So, it is a win-win situation,” Eze said.
The company also used the occasion to present an award to one of its staff, Mr Akin Bogun, who has been promoting the cause for a healthier and greener environment through tree planting.
The COO also unveiled the company’s environment and social policy which outlined the steps the company would take going forward towards becoming an environmentally-friendly organisation.
The train moved to Bashorun Ogunmola High School, Ring Road, Ibadan, where the IBEDC inaugurated the Health, Safety and Environment club, with a charge from the COO and other staff to the students to embrace greener environment initiative. A tree was planted in the school by the company to commemorate and symbolise the day.
The Principal of the school, Mrs. Abosede Oluokun, thanked the IBEDC for choosing to mark the day with the school and assured of the school’s commitment to ensure a greener and healthier environment.