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Consumption Barometer - Measuring Talk and Reality at the Summit
By Ronald Kete
As far as Joburg’s environment goes, the WSSD scores high. But this is
largely due to the efforts of Nasrec and Ubuntu Village, where “green”
energy has fuelled the sites. In Sandton, delegates are driving too many cars,
washing too much, and burning too much electricity.
These results come out of an initiative by the Greening the WSSD Consumption
Barometer, set to quantify the daily consumption of resources, such as water,
air and electricity, by delegates. An environmental assessment was completed
prior the summit to provide standard information on consumption levels at the
five major venues: Sandton Convention Centre, the Ubuntu Village, Nasrec Expo
Centre, The Hilton Hotel and The Crown Plaza Hotel. The barometer highlights the
impact of the summit on natural resources and environment on the host city,
Joburg.
Only two centres Nasrec and the Ubuntu Village are using an
environment-friendly form of electricity, while other venues are using
coal-powered electricity. Electricity readings at the centres were done for a
period prior to the summit to create a baseline for measuring. From the
electricity readings done daily once at 10am during the summit period, the
barometer shows that delegates are using too much electricity despite the
measures taken to save resources. In Sandton, guards or volunteers have made it
their duty to close doors left open by delegates in order to reduce the load on
the air-conditioning systems, but with delegates coming in and out most of the
time the efforts to save electricity are thwarted. Though lights in public areas
are dimmed or switched off when not needed, delegates are staying up till late,
thus using too much energy.
Unlike the green energy used in Nasrec and Ubuntu Village, coal-powered
electricity does not reduce carbon in the environment. The summit is supposed to
be raising public awareness of environmental issues by exhibiting sustainable
development projects. The Ubuntu Village and the NASREC Expo Centre were
provided with electricity that is certified green by South Africa's National
Electricity Regulator (NER) and supplied by green sources like hydro-electricity
powered from sugar mill waste. This was to show the feasibility of ‘green’
electricity. Green electricity is said to cost more for consumers than “normal”
South African electricity, but could be generated continuously without the
burning of fossil fuels (coal), using renewable energy sources such as the sun,
the wind, biomass and small hydro-electric stations. The barometer readings
calculated in mega watts per hour indicate that the use of green electricity is
increasing.
The barometer’s estimations on carbon dioxide generated by electricity, air
and road travel in the host city indicate the increase of air pollution. Before
the summit, transport providers were given advanced driving lessons in order to
save energy and to reduce air pollution. The reality is different. Since the
summit started Sandton people have been seeing fleets of posh German cars
transporting heads of state. Unlike delegates in Nasrec who tend to use shared
transport, buses and taxis, Sandton delegates proved to be the real wa-benzis,
not conserving anything.
“Waste is the biggest problem,” said Claudia Holgate, an officer at the
Greening the WSSD monitoring centre. Waste generated is weighed once per day.
The summit has been generating nearly 15 tons of waste daily; 4-6 tons are
recycled, while the rest go to landfills. Pikitup, a waste company, is working
on recycling the waste generated by the summit. Delegates have been encouraged
to separate waste to be disposed on recycling bins marked for plastics, cans,
paper and glass. Dry waste collected from the major summit venues is separated
to be recycled while wet waste goes to landfills. Much of the waste generated in
the summit goes to landfills rather than recycling. However, awareness has been
created on recycling. The special bins used at the Summit venues will be used in
the Joburg central business district as a part of the Inner City Clean-up
campaign after the summit.
Water consumption has increased since the summit started despite the fact
that most Sandton sites have installed sensors in rest rooms to save water by
switching taps off and by controlling flushing. Delegates have made water, “blue
gold,” a major issue in their discussions, but little effort is done in saving
it in the host city. -- Witsnews
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