by Ms Tasneem Essop, Minister of Environment, Planning and Economic Development
at Cape Town
5 December 2006
I am very excited about this, when my department did a presentation on
2Wise2Waste which was an internally driven programme on reducing our ecological
footprint I said it was too small and to slow. Global issues have caught up
with this, we are doing good work but we have to increase the pace and we had
to provide cutting-edge leadership we needed to upscale our pace. The focus we
have is about our ecological footprint in the broader context of Climate Change
and how we adapt and mitigate.
This roof garden is a step in providing leadership in the overall campaign
and rollout to all government buildings. We occupy 48 buildings in the Central
Business District (CBD) of Cape Town. At our sustainable development
conference, just over a year ago one of the outcomes was to looking at greening
our own buildings as well as green procurement. We are finalising this with the
Provincial Treasury and the Department of Public Works. These could be seen as
small shifts, but already the two proposed hospitals in Mitchell's Plain and
Khayelitsha will have green design, using renewable energies.
This is our contribution to the overall commitment. But we are taking our
first steps and leading by example - how we made our building more efficient in
terms of energy and water usage, papers usage and general consumption. In just
two years my department has recycled 11 tonnes of paper. That is only one
department, if you look at all the other government departments and the level
of paper usage, then recycling is a critical element.
2Wise2Waste is based on the triple R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. As soon
as we have the campaign rolled out across government, we will also get buy-in
from individuals and the private sector. This is not just because it is a moral
imperative, but it also makes good business sense; there might be some initial
investment required to retrofit buildings, but after that the reduction in
usage will be economically beneficial.
We need to do this to ensure a sustainable future for generations to come.
Climate Change is not a myth, we are experiencing in the Western Cape, whether
with our water restrictions, energy crisis and from now we enter our fire
season because of extended dry periods. Recently we experienced devastating
floods in the Southern Cape.
The impacts are here and now. We cannot sit back and say we don't know we
have to act. 2Wise2Waste is about acting now. We, as government, cannot preach
to the world if we do not practise what we preach. What we learnt and
implemented in our department now will translate into savings for government.
Retrofitting and green procurement will mean a little extra investment, but it
translates into long term saving and this translates into long term
sustainability. I am happy members of the Standing Committee are here, to see
that this roof garden is not just a luxury. Imagine a CBD with many similar
rooftops, celebrating our indigenous plants and flowers.
Issued by: Department of Environment, Planning and Economic Development,
Western Cape Provincial Government
5 December 2006
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government (http://www.capegateway.gov.za)
