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News

Perspectives on money

On Saturday, 17 August 2024, the research colloquium "Perspectives on Money" will take place in Winterthur (ZH). The speakers will be: Marc Desaules, Samirah Kenawi, Jean-Marc Decressonnière, Jens-Martignoni and Fionn Meier.

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Orientation Year Programme 2024-2025 and 'Daring to be independent' training in Montezillon

Nine months of orientation and full-time training at L'Aubier. The courses, artistic workshops and immersion in L'Aubier's various sectors of activity make this a unique and stimulating experience. The aim is to gain independence of mind, heart and hands, of thinking, feeling and willing.

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A film about Social Threefolding

This documentary is an attempt to derive the necessity of the three areas of Rudolf Steiner's Threefolding through individualisation, globalisation and industrialisation

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Second newsletter of the Swiss Threefolding Movement published in October

The current issue of the newsletter Dreigliederung Schweiz - Bewegung für soziale Erneuerung (Threefolding Switzerland - Movement for Social Renewal) appears with a colourful cover. The magazine is aimed at members of the movement and all interested readers.

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SEKEM

Graduation Ceremony 2018 at Heliopolis University

At the same time that Heliopolis University (HU) is launching two new faculties and receiving new students, the six-year-old educational entity bid farewell to its third batch of graduates. Around 150 graduates are now going to start a new phase in their life, aspiring to become the ambassadors of sustainable development.

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Ownership-Conference

Ownership Conference: Steward-Owned Companies

Do wee need a new form of ownership to tranform capitalism? What is steward-ownership and might this be the solution? The  Ownership Conference, 30-31 October 2018, Berlin will bring together “steward-owned” companies and entrepreneurs looking for solutions to succession and long-term oriented ownership.
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Sustainability Report 2016 – Economy

The past three as well as the ongoing devaluation of the Egyptian Pound led to a weak overall economic development and resulted in a consumption decline in Egypt. Hence, SEKEM faced challenging times in 2016 and could not achieve all economic targets, like in the former post- revolution years. The majority of SEKEMs produced goods, 79 percent, were consistently sold in the local market. The initiative kept its strategic focus on financial recovery and debt relief in order to strengthen its resilience. Dealer networks, nationally and internationally, have been extended and new customers were acquired. In addition, SEKEM has begun to strengthen export activities, which helps to counteract the devaluation of the Egyptian Pound (EGP).

However, SEKEM could achieve improvements in terms of its economical dimension. SEKEM increased the minimum basic salary to 1‘300 EGP and improved the ratio of the highest to the lowest annual full-time salary from 1:36 in 2015 to 1:31 in 2016, for instance. Furthermore, due to the positive operational performance, SEKEM was able to invest 10 percent of its annual profit into community development. SEKEM raised the sales value of certifiable products, which have a Demeter certificate (from 43 percent in 2015 to 53 percent in 2016) as well as of products with an Organic certificate (from 56 percent in 2015 to 73 percent in 2016). The challenge to successfully certify the remaining 27 percent of possible organic sales is mainly driven by product quality from SEKEMs suppliers that fight with an immense pesticide pollution via water and air that cause residuals. Another reason is the mandatory transition period for conventional farms that want to become organically certified from which we are committed to take the produce during these three years of transition. Otherwise SEKEM would not be able to convince farmers to enter in an organic production system that usually comes with an initial drop in productivity. Of course, SEKEM is 100% committed not to use any chemical fertilizer or pesticides for its natural raw materials and striving for a fully certified organic product portfolio over the coming years.

Together with Heliopolis University’s Carbon Footprint Center SEKEM continued with assessing its product portfolio and increased its share of sales of products with known product carbon footprint from 56 to 80 percent. The carbon footprints of SEKEM products are based on categories, such as herbal teas, organic baby garments, organic textile dolls, herbs and spices, juices etc. What is not included yet are product categories such as animal products, seeds etc. Furthermore, all product for ATOS Pharma, natural medicines and healthcare products are not applicable for carbon footprint calculation.

SEKEM Consolidated Key Financial Figures

SEKEM and its subsidiaries were able to grow despite the challenges given in the environment, and achieved a consolidated growth of 29% in total sales, reaching EGP 375.7 million. The gross profit grew by 25%, reaching EGP 168.8 million. The devaluation of the Egyptian Pound in November 2016 has had a tremendous impact on SEKEMs consolidated earnings before tax and reduced them accordingly, to EGP 0.5m.

ISIS Organic

ISIS Organic could hold its position as one of the largest Organic food companies in the Middle East in 2016. The company supplies more than 60,000 customers in 16 different countries and counts more than 500 employees. ISIS Organic introduced new products, such as bottled water and green tea, and generated out of them sales of 64 million EGP, which represents 83 percent of the value of all newly introduced SEKEM products sold in 2016. Hence, ISIS Organic was the main driver in boosting SEKEMs share of sales revenues from new products from 12 to 20 percent. Although the financial year 2016 was successful for ISIS Organic – 18% sales growth – the target couldn’t be reached due to Egypt’s economic situation. SEKEMs largest company extended in 2016 it’s export activities and invested in sales and marketing. Moreover, ISIS Organic decreased the number of customer complains by more than 40% and is therefore mainly contributing to the SEKEM Holding reducing the total number of customer complains by almost 30% in 2016 (136 complains in 2015 and 96 complains in 2016).
Get to know Boshra Elwan, Quality Control Manager at ISIS Organic

ATOS Pharma

At the beginning of 2016, ATOS Pharma had been affected by the devaluation of the Egyptian pound as well, especially since most of its products are tied to state-regulated prices. Nevertheless, SEKEMs company for phytopharmaceuticals was able to generate EGP 49 million sales and a growth of 26%. This is can be ascribed to investments in a more efficient production as well as expanding the sales team. The newly developed and distributed product BioDiagnostics© showed success on the market and contributed to ATOS Pharma’s revenue with EGP 1.46 million.
Get to know Zarifa Kamal, Packaging Technician at ATOS Pharma

NatureTex

As NatureTex, SEKEMs company for Organic textiles, exports 85% of its product the company can be considered as winner of the Egyptian Pound devaluation. Hence, the company could even exceed its targets for 2016. Besides, NatureTex generated new international customers as well as on the local market and developed innovations like quilted blankets and ball yarn, for instance. Hence, NatureTex raised EGP 4.6 million from new products.
Get to know Walaa Mohamed, Quality Specialist at NatureTex

Lotus

The company Lotus is processing herbs and spices and was able to grow in 2016, although the local sales were impacted negatively by its sister company ISIS Organic, which is supplying Lotus with raw materials. At the same time, the devaluation of the Egyptian pound had a positive impact on the export sales of the company which reached almost 60%. There continued to be a high demand for the new and currently popular products Chia, Quinoa and Jojoba. In 2016, Lotus improved its raw material quality as well as the production process that lead to a higher product purity. This was a major driver for SEKEM improving its ratio of total weight of waste per thousand EGP sales from 2.5 in 2015 to 1.4 in 2016. SEKEMs total amount of waste went up from 688 to 793 tons during the last year with a share of 66% and 69% of organic waste respectively. While SEKEM is recycling all its organic waste, only 42% of the non-organic waste was recycled, which represents a major challenge to be increased. Another huge challenge is the very low amount of recycled packaging material. Investigations showed that only Lotus uses some plastic, paper and carton as recycled input material. For all other companies the price and quality are main reasons to not use recycled packaging materials.

Download SEKEMs Sustainability Report 2016 Now

Explore SEKEMs previous sustainability reports

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