Projects
Water and energy saving in South Africa
In late 2010, The Travel Foundation was awarded funding from Defra, under the UK-South Africa Sustainable Development Dialogue, to run a water and energy saving project.
The Wilderness Foundation South Africa was contracted as the local partner on the ground, and they worked closely with a wealth of South African organisations in order to encourage hotels and guest houses in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban to get involved. Workshops were held in each of these cities in late January / early February 2011, introducing the project to over 100 hotels, with representatives from the Travel Foundation, the Department of Environmental Affairs, Department of Water Affairs and Eskom (generators of approximately 95% of the electricity used in South Africa) introducing the concepts of sustainable tourism, and sustainability in the operation of accommodations.
60 accommodation units then received on-site visits from auditors. They each then received recommendation reports specific to their property, detailing the measures they can implement to reduce their water and energy consumption and the production of waste.
Baseline data on current consumption levels was obtained from each property and contact will be retained for a year in order to gather monthly data. This will assist the properties in implementing ongoing monitoring systems, and illustrate the savings that they are achieving through the measures undertaken.
In South Africa, we're helping hotels to reduce their water and energy consumption. It will help hotels reduce their utility bills, as well as being good environmental practice.