A team has been set up to make the World Summit environmentally friendly
Fiona Macleod
When more than 50 000 delegates descend on Gauteng in August for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, one of the things they should not be asked to do is drink out of polystyrene cups.
Pollution-causing fossil fuels are used in the manufacture of polystyrene, it takes a few hundred years to disintegrate and it breaks down into nasty elements like dioxins that poison the water table. Instead, delegates should use utensils made of natural materials that easily return to nature.
Corn-starch cups would be the A-solution, says Jeremy Burnham, part of a team set up to “green” the summit by making it environmentally friendly. But they may not be available in South Africa and flying them in may be expensive and wasteful.
Other options include paper mugs, which are biodegradable but use a fair amount of energy and chemicals in the manufacturing process. Plastic utensils may be cheap and recyclable, but fossil fuels are used to make them and they are not biodegradable.
The summit’s “green team” is juggling compromises and solutions around virtually every aspect of the delegates’ lives while they are in the country for the summit, which runs from August 26 to September 4.
With $1-million (about R12-million) funding from the Global Environment Fund, the project is being coordinated by the IUCN-World Conservation Union, the Johannesburg World Summit Company and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs.
“The World Summit is important not only because it gives us an opportunity to reflect on sustainable development, but the kind of information provided must change behaviours,” says Gauteng MEC Mary Metcalfe.
“If by next year we haven’t changed the way people view the environment, then it won’t have been worth the while.”
A large part of the project is an awareness-raising campaign around the “ecological footprint” so many extra people will leave behind in Gauteng. This will chart how many resources they use and how much extra waste they create during their two-week stay.
The “footprint” will set out how much water and electricity 50 000 people are expected to use, and how much carbon will be added to the atmosphere when they fly in by aeroplane and drive to different venues. The object is to see how much this “footprint” can be minimised.
Hotels and other accommodation facilities are being encouraged to install double-flush toilets that use less water and energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps. Transport providers are asked to use unleaded petrol, petrogas or eco-diesel.
The “green team” is also talking to Eskom about supplying power from renewable energy sources such as the wind-power farm in Darling in the Western Cape.
“Some of these projects will require major infrastructure changes and, given our time constraints, they will remain demonstration models for future development,” says Saliem Fakir, South African representative of the IUCN-World Conservation Union.
“After the summit, the country will be left with a legacy of environmental best practice.
“But we don’t want a greenwash. We won’t only showcase the good side. We want to use the summit also to focus on bad practices, such as the legacy of mining.”
Fakir points out that South Africa wants to avoid the kind of criticism raised by the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Environmentalists protest that developers used the event to destroy the pristine beauty of the Rocky Mountains.
The World Summit’s green team will work with consultants and service providers to fine-tune environmental management of the event.
One positive step already achieved is that the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa has agreed to implement a green rating system, which will operate along similar lines to the star rating system. This will help guests choose their accommodation according to how environmentally friendly it is.
Another initiative will see the launch by the department this weekend of Bontle ke Botho, a campaign aimed at getting local wards and schools to clean up their areas. This will include the introduction of multi-media litter bins, which will be placed at airports and other venues during the summit.
Multi-media bins are divided into sections for glass, paper and plastics, making recycling easier.
So when the green team finally decides what kind of cups delegates should drink out of, at least they will be able to find an appropriate place to throw them when they are finished with them.