As the Greening the Future Awards enters its sixth year of rewarding companies and organisations that have taken up the green cause, looking back over the years reveals that the awards have been handed out to several visionary organisations that realised how important it is to protect our environment.
Last year, companies’ focus on how to become more energy efficient received a great deal of attention, as did the issue of climate change. South Africa’s rolling blackouts also became a permanent fixture on the news agenda.
In a year when energy efficiency became one of the country’s top priorities and converts to the cause were needed, the National Business Initiative caught the eye of the Greening judges and took top honours in the Energy and Carbon Management category. The organisation educates big companies about their green footprint and encourages them to become more energy efficient.
As more companies become aware of their carbon footprint, they are also implementing greener policies. First National Bank took top honours in the companies and organisations division with the most improved environmental practices for the way they have “greened” their headquarters, Bank City.
But Greening the Future awards also rewards smaller community-based organisations that might not have the big bucks of companies such as First National Bank. In the Environmental Best Practice for Community-Based Organisations category, Sizanani Permaculture Project was the winner. Gugu Mdlalose, a natural science teacher at Sizanani Primary School in Soweto, started a small food-gardening project at her school in the late Nineties, which has had a positive knock-on effect in her immediate community. Mdlalose’s enthusiasm and the project’s reach caught the eye of the judges.
The National Association of Conservancies of South Africa has been doing exemplary work for years and last year it was rewarded when it won the Environmental Best Practice in Not-For-Profit Organisations award. The association operates in 750 conservancies and protects about 30-million hectares of land, five times more than SANParks and the different provinces’ parks boards control.
The Emalahleni Water reclamation project, South Africa’s first water reclamation plant, took first prize in the Water Care category. The project was the brainchild of Anglo Coal South Africa which treats water from the underground workings of its mines into quality potable water for the Witbank municipality and was described as a “fantastic project” by the judges.
Last year’s winner of the Chemical Safety Award was the Endangered Wildlife Trust Poison Prevention Group, an NGO that promotes “responsible predator management” and focuses on eliminating indiscriminate poisoning. The judges described the group as doing “invaluable” work to protect South Africa’s biodiversity.