In looking back on the impact being made by some of our Flagships towards meeting their commitment statement, below are some examples of what is being done in in the Green Economy space:
Nedbank’s Greening Your Business
The Greening your business course was made available to small and medium businesses in the Western Cape Region. Whilst more than 300 businesses signed up for the course, some chose to only download modules that were of specific interest to them. A small number chose to download all the modules. Feedback from some of these selected companies is listed below:
- Omni HR Consulting: ‘The Greening Your Business Course presented great tools that the company will utilise in the near future to achieve sustainability. The course gave insight on the importance of monitoring our waste, water and electricity usage which is bound to save the company money’, Akhona Mbenyana
- Food galaxy: Sparked by the Course, Food Galaxy reported that they have implemented a few recycling methods in the take-away shop such as frying up their potatoes skins as a menu item instead of discarding them. All the other vegetable offcuts are donated to an earthworm farm. In return they receive vermiculture compost from the farm, which Marie uses on her lemon garden. These lemons are in turn used at the take-away shop.
Depart of Agriculture, Western Cape’s Sustainable Crop Production through Conservation Agriculture
The aim of the project is to show farmers of the Western Cape the road to sustainable production through the practice of conservation agriculture. The Department kick-started the drive by launching the Conservation Agriculture Western Cape (CAWC) association, which is now run by farmers themselves with the Department providing the secretariat and organising the green tours (prior to harvest), brown tours (after harvest) and also helping with compiling the newsletter. Furthermore, through the long-term trials of our crop research team, farmers have been educated through farmers’ days and articles in popular media about success story. Our sustainable resource team is also assisting the rooibos farmers with conservation agriculture.
Solms Delta’s Recycling of Waste
As part of their commitment statement, Solms Delta has set up an on-site recycling plant and employed someone to run it. In going beyond what they have committed they are now investigating renewable energy resources for future implementation, such as a PV System for generating power at the cellar and restaurant areas and a biogas digester as an alternative to the current sewerage system.
Woolworths/Engen Customer Recycling Project
As part of managing a series of customer recycling facilities at selected Engen service stations, in conjunction with Engen and Nampak recycling, Woolworths has assisted in creating 5 additional jobs. They have also expanded their offer of recycling facilities to 17 schools in the Western Cape, and are in the process of rolling this out more broadly.