Johannesburg, 06 Dec 2012
South Africa's rising energy demand is expected to be twice the current level by 2030. Now more than ever, business has a crucial role to play in role-modelling and helping to save energy. To this end, SAP Africa signed the 49M energy saving pledge during the recent Eskom-led 49M Charity Golf Day.
According to 49M, there are 9.8 million electricity-consuming households in the country and it is estimated that if every one of them cut back their energy usage by just 10%, the country's overall electricity usage would fall by 3%.
Sustainability is core to SAP's vision of making the world run better, and it is a natural fit for SAP to support Eskom in its mandate to making South Africa more energy efficient. SAP software provides 30 million households globally with the ability to use energy more responsibly. In this respect, SAP has helped its customers reduce carbon by 2.5 million tons; saving $470 million in energy spend. In addition, 95% of the world's most sustainable companies run SAP.
It is not only about enabling customers to save energy; on the home-front, SAP has committed to reduce its total global greenhouse gas emissions back to the levels of 2000 by 2020. This equates to lowering emissions by about 50% from 2007 levels. Since 2007, SAP has lowered its emissions by more than 25%.
The 49M campaign, which is an Eskom-led initiative, calls on all South Africans to use electricity sparingly, and this message has been received with much enthusiasm. Support from corporate South Africa, various government departments, state-owned companies and even from individual South Africans has increased.
To date, 49M has signed more than 70 partners who have pledged their support and promised to do their bit to save electricity in their respective businesses. As the campaign continues to grow, 49M remains hopeful that all South Africans can indeed contribute to the goal of reducing the country's electricity consumption by 10%.
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