110% Green celebrated its one anniversary in June 2013 at the VPUU in Khayelitsha. You can see images from this celebration here. At this celebration the 110% Green team had an opportunity to reflect on the variety of projects the 110% Green Flagships undertook over the year. The impacts of these projects were far reaching and varied. Here are a few of our highlights:
The Western Cape Government has been busy over the past year, putting into action their 110% Green commitment which includes:
- Carbon Neutral: The Carbon Neutral project provides a platform where the voluntary offset of the carbon footprint of government travel can take place. Initially the Department of the Premier will take the lead and a dedicated amount has been set aside for this purpose in the 2013/14 financial year. All government departments will be encouraged to partake in this initiative.
- Give Green: The WCG is in the process of appointing a service provider to enable the WCG to procure green related gifts and/or events/conference materials from small craft producers in the province through a single channel. This project aligns with government’s commitment to job creation through the support of micro and small producers.
Theewaterskloof Municipality 110% Green Forum
Theewaterskloof (TWK) Municipality committed to establish a 110% Green Forum which is representative of all stakeholders involved in green initiatives in the area. In the last year the TWK Forum has managed to create a platform to launch projects, network and optimise resources and share knowledge and build awareness in communities around sustainable living. Have a look here to read more about the TWK 110% Green Forum.
Abalimi Bezekhaya
As their Flagship project, Abalimi committed and managed to achieve the following:
- Support a minimum of 165 sustainable grassroots micro-farming jobs valued at R300-R2000/m,
- Support a minimum of 165 sustainable grassroots micro-farming jobs valued at R300-R2000/m,
- Increase turnover from R1 million to R1.5 million from veg box sales with 100% net profits go to train and supply new and developing micro-farmers,
- Harvest of Hope box members (customers) increase from 350 to 600 while reducing their carbon footprint by up to 50%.
City of Cape Town Traffic Light and Street Light Retrofit Programme
The City has been in a process of retrofitting its traffic lights (and street lights) over the past 3 years. This programme was boosted by the Department of Energy/National Treasury funded Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management Programme. Street lights and traffic lights make up approximately 37% of all electricity consumed in the City’s own operations. These therefore provide enormous opportunity to save money and reduce resource consumption.
All traffic intersections which contained incandescent and halogen bulbs have been replaced with Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs. LEDs are very efficient for lighting, and their application in traffic lighting results in very significant savings for the City. All of Cape Town’s (in both Eskom and CCT supplied areas) traffic lights were completed by September 2012. Retrofits of the 1 378 traffic intersections in the city are realising energy savings of 11 818MWh per annum.
Well done to those flagships that managed to meet their committment. Together we can achieve the goal of making the Western Cape the lowest carbon region in South Africa.