At the recent world climate change conference in Bali one of the topics on the table was high energy demand and how it is affecting global warming.
As a British businessman said: ”Businesses would be foolish to ignore the signs of what climate change will do to your business. You have to adapt now.”
The first step is to become more energy efficient and smart companies are already investing in innovative programmes that will save energy and, in turn, save them money in the long term.
While individuals are encouraged to make their homes greener, it’s business that can make the big difference: in South Africa residential energy consumption accounts for 16,4% of final energy demand, according to the Energy Efficiency Strategy, while the industrial sector accounts for 47%.
If there is no power, there can be no business, so companies must work towards being energy efficient.
In 2005 big business and the department of minerals and energy signed the National Business Initiative’s (NBI) energy efficiency accord, which aims to encourage businesses to become more energy efficient in the way they operate and use power in their dealings. Though a significant number of big businesses, such as AngloGold Ashanti, Eskom and Nedbank, are signatories, many more need to come on board.
Eskom has a programme to encourage businesses to use power wisely and cut down on usage. Eskom’s ”demand side management” is an example of how the national electricity supplier is helping large entities to become more energy efficient. The programme allows Eskom to control when and how consumers use electricity.
It has two angles: load management, which South Africans have become all too familiar with in the past few weeks, and an increase in the use of energy-efficient equipment and improved industrial processes.
Eskom’s Andrew Etzinger says an example of load management would be to operate a mine’s pumping systems only in off-peak hours, which would decrease the demand on the national power grid during peak hours. As for energy-efficient equipment, a mine, for example, could use a underground lighting system designed to conserve power, says Etzinger.
To promote energy efficiency, Eskom has set up a demand side management fund of R500-million a year to fund projects that will save at least 500KW.
Apart from cutting down on electricity usage, industries, such as Mittal Steel and Sasol, which emit CO2, will also have to change the way they build factories.
In Bali it emerged that South Africa will have to cap its emissions after 2012, so all factories will have to put the right technology in place to limit pollution. Companies that fail to do so will face government-imposed fines.
A by-product of the cap system, which is encouraged by the Kyoto Protocol, is the carbon trade system. This allows big polluters to buy credit from the carbon market.
Companies that have reduced their pollution output and have credits to spare can sell the credits to the carbon market, leading to a healthy trade in carbon credits in Europe. Although the system has been criticised in environmental circles, carbon trading has become lucrative in the EU.
As the UK businessman said in Bali: ”There is a brave new world out there that has been brought about by the challenge of climate change. Businesses can either crawl away and hide from their responsibilities or embrace the challenge, ensuring they move with the times. The choice is an obvious one to make.”
Rewarding best practice
It’s time again to enter the Mail & Guardian‘s Greening the Future Awards. The awards provide a platform for showcasing corporate environmental best practice.
Our panel of judges comprises some of the most forward-thinking minds involved in shaping environmental sustainability in South Africa.
The M&G will host an awards ceremony in June and the winners will be featured in a special celebratory supplement.
Greening the Future categories include the water care award, which aims to showcase and encourage efforts to preserve and manage water resources, and the energy and carbon management award, which was added to the awards portfolio last year.
The energy and carbon management award is aimed at raising awareness of the effects of global warming and encouraging companies to be more energy efficient. Companies that have introduced innovative programmes to lessen their carbon footprint will be rewarded.
Other categories include the awards for organisations with innovative environmental strategies that improve business performance and for organisations with the ”most improved” environmental practices. The chemical safety award once again encourages responsible use of chemicals and toxins and the environmental best practice award serves to encourage best practice in not-for-profit organisations.
Organisations can enter more than one category. The closing date for entries is April 20 2008. For entry forms telephone Sudley Adams on 011 250 7425 or visit www.mg.co.za/greening.