Merit award — Companies and organisations with the most improved environmental practices
Merit award — Energy and carbon management: EnviroServ
Climate change is the flavour of the month, with world environmental politics dominated by the climate change debate. At the centre of the debate is the Kyoto Protocol, which outlines how the countries of the world should reduce their carbon footprints.
Under the protocol, developed countries with high carbon emissions can buy “carbon credits” from less-developed countries with lower carbon emissions under a carbon trade scheme, by sponsoring carbon-reducing projects.
Qualifying countries able to reduce their emissions are able to sell “carbon credits” to countries that might not be able to reach their reduction targets. This is known as the clean development mechanism (CDM), a strategy embraced by waste management company Enviroserv.
The largest waste management company on the African continent, Enviroserv offers a one-stop facility including general waste collection, transport, treatment and disposal. Last year the company won a merit award, with AECI, for its clean-up of a Somerset West industrial site.
This year Enviroserv wanted to showcase its commitment to tempering the impact its waste disposal has on the environment, said the group’s safety, health, environment and quality officer, Greg Alborough.
The company’s landfill gas recovery at the Chloorkop Waste Management Facility project won a merit award at the Greening the Future Awards in the energy and carbon management category together with a merit award in the category of companies with innovative environmental strategies that improve business performance.
Alborough smiles like a proud father when talking about the Chloorkop project. “For Enviroserv, this project has been and still is a labour of love,” he said. “Few opportunities arise where significant, sustainable environmental and financial benefits are realised together and this is one of those few. Projects like these demonstrate our commitment to the prevention of pollution, taking a leading role in the field of waste management and greening the future.”
EnviroServ is able to sell the one-million tons of greenhouse gases it extracts from Chloorkop as “Certified Emissions Reductions” (CERs) under the Kyoto Protocol.
The project started in February 2005 when EnviroServ entered an emission reductions purchase agreement with the Japanese Carbon Fund under the Kyoto Protocol. The transaction is one of the largest South African CDM projects to date and was the first contract of the Japanese fund. It was also the first private landfill gas project to be approved in South Africa.
Japan Carbon Finance is a conglomerate comprising two state-owned Japanese banks and more than 30 A-rated, blue-chip Japanese companies, which has pledged almost R1-billion for the purchase of CERs outside Japan. The conglomerate is committed to taking a minimum of one-million tons and has first right of refusal on any additional tons that EnviroServ might produce.
The deal specifically focuses on the Chloorkop landfill site, which EnviroServ manages.
The site has been used for the disposal of municipal solid waste since 1997, receiving about 1Â 500 tons of waste a day or 396Â 000 tons a year. The new project will start landfill extraction at the site and destoy the landfill gas. A gas capturing facility was established at the plant.
For the past two years EnviroServ has been running pilot projects to introduce the technologies, but Alborough expects the project to be fully up and running in the next month. The project also received full CDM status from the United Nations under the Kyoto Protocol last month.
The project captures and flares methane generated from the landfill site. Alborough said EnviroServ’s research and development division was exploring alternatives to flaring the gas, that the overarching goal was to satisfy environmental needs.
Apart from the environmental benefits of the project, it brings direct foreign investment into South Africa through the purchase of CERs, Alborough said.
“The recovery and combustion of methane gas will result in an improvement of air quality and greenhouse gases, contributing to more sustainable landfill practices,” he said.
The Greening judges commented that EnviroServ was making a significant contribution to carbon management through the CDM project. They added that they looked forward to when the Chloorkop project would be fully up and running.
“The project would definitely contribute to gas emission reductions,” the judges said, adding that EnviroServ was improving business performance and that they were moving with the times, as shown by the company’s engagement with CDM projects.
“It improves business performance,” the judges said, emphasising that even though the project was still in its pilot phase, it deserved recognition.