The City of Cape Town, in collaboration with Eskom and the South African Property Owners Association, will host the 13th Cape Town Energy Efficiency Forum for commercial property owners and managers, on Thursday, 5 September 2013.
The forum, which will take place between 09:00 and 12:30, aims to encourage the implementation of energy efficiency improvements.
Established in 2009, the forum is co-funded by Old Mutual. It provides hard-hitting case studies and technical and financial information to inspire and assist the commercial sector to reduce energy consumption and save money.
The next meeting will provide material to encourage and stimulate energy efficiency in the commercial sector. Practical case studies of energy efficiency retrofits and updates on financing options will be presented through presentations and discussions.
Highlights include an Energy Efficiency Roadmap that documents the steps to follow in order to apply for Eskom’s Standard Offer and Standard Product Incentive Programmes, and a talk on the Smart Office Toolkit that has been produced by the City of Cape Town to help offices go green. Case studies on the Peninsula All Suite Hotel’s behaviour change interventions, Hotel Verde’s Sustainable Design Programme, and the City’s Buildings Retrofit Programme will be showcased.
The City continues to implement its own extensive energy efficiency retrofits and behaviour change projects across all of its operations, including:
- retrofitting traffic lights with LEDs by June 2012, resulting in a 67% saving
- retrofitting high-wattage street lamps developing a pilot LED public lighting project which will be implemented this year
- retrofitting 18 buildings and installing smart metering and energy management in a further 55
- giving 153 staff members from City Parks and 81 from Facilities Management energy management and behaviour change training this year
- implementing an energy efficient lighting design and implementation project in the Civic Centre
These projects all result in significant annual savings to the City, proving that it is worthwhile investing in such programmes.
Energy efficiency has become increasingly important to property owners and tenants on account of South Africa’s rising electricity tariffs and the possible medium-term shortage of electricity. The potential financial benefits, legislation, and the need to reduce carbon emissions all add up to the need for a combined effort to find solutions to improve energy efficiency, particularly amongst large energy users.
In Cape Town, commercial buildings consume about 40% of the electricity supply (residential: 43%, industrial: 13%, government: 2%, transport: 2%) and accounts for 23% of carbon dioxide emissions.
“In light of tariff increases and the financial and other benefits that flow from energy efficiency improvements, it makes sense for commercial building owners to hear first-hand what other building managers are achieving, so as to make green improvements to the buildings that they own. These options will lead to significant co-benefits, such as cheaper energy services, reduced environmental damage, local economic development and a more liveable and economically competitive city,” says the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic, Environmental and Spatial Planning, Councillor Garreth Bloor.
For more information and to register for the event, property owners and managers should visit the Energy Efficiency Forum page.
For more information about the Energy Efficiency Forum, contact Rafeeqah Kamish on 021 487 2920/072 716 4495 or e-mail rafeeqah.kamish@capetown.gov.za.
