10 REASONS TO BUILD GREEN FOCUS
9. TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES
At the Vodafone Innovation Centre in South Africa, WSP has designed what is – for now – the greenest building on the continent, and the first to achieve a 6-star Green Star rating under South Africa’s accreditation scheme.
“Our client Vodacom is at the cutting edge of transmission technology, so they wanted a building that was bleeding edge too,” says Eric Noir, Technical Director of WSP Green by Design in Johannesburg. “We’ve embedded a huge amount of stuff that hasn’t been done before here. We’ve really broken new ground with the methodology, systems and technology we’ve used. This is a showcase for them, to help start an internal and external dialogue about sustainability.”
VODAFONE INNOVATION CENTRE, SOUTH AFRICA
10. TO SUPPORT YOUR CORPORATE BRAND
Client interview: Richard Sturman, Global Energy and Climate Change Director, AstraZeneca
For AstraZeneca, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies with annual healthcare sales of US$33.6bn, environmental sustainability is a key corporate value. “As a company which is trying to improve human health, it’s not a big leap to move from health to environmental and social well being,” explains Richard Sturman, Global Energy and Climate Change Director. “It’s well-aligned with the brand image that the company has and strives to portray.”
AstraZeneca is indeed striving towards some ambitious environmental targets, with the goal of an absolute reduction in its carbon footprint, by 20% between 2010 and 2015. This goal covers the company’s carbon footprint spanning its entire
operations, from the emissions linked to manufacturing through to offices, R&D facilities and the cars used by the sales reps. In addition, the footprint of the asthma inhalers it produces is also steadily decreasing.
Sturman must ensure that every part of the business is working towards the 20% goal. One of the most important changes is to use a greater proportion of renewable energy across its sites. “We asked WSP, working with Ernst & Young, to help us identify a strategy,” he says. “We were really interested in which technologies we should be considering and how it should fit with our overall carbon footprint reduction programme. They identified several ways, such as using energy much more efficiently on some of our sites, and to think about using combined heat and power. Elsewhere, we’re looking at expanding our purchase of
renewable energy rather than necessarily investing in generating it ourselves, which challenged some of our assumptions.
“We’re now exploring several things as a consequence of the work that WSP carried out. In the UK, for example, we have a national contract with our electricity supplier and we’ve been discussing their different tariffs. We are also looking at a power purchase agreement, which is a three-way commercial deal with a renewable energy supplier as well.”
Then there are the many energy-saving measures he has implemented across the company’s sites: “Although each of these is quite small, there’s a myriad going on and they all add up to save carbon and money.”
Sturman’s tireless efforts have contributed to a strong rating in the Dow Jones sustainability index, which tracks sustainability-
driven companies, a key indicator of success for the business’ leaders. But it also has a greater significance, he adds: “It’s about being a good corporate citizen, if you like. Companies, individuals, governments all have an obligation to address their carbon footprints. It’s a global challenge and it’s very real.”
COMPANIES, INDIVIDUALS, GOVERNMENTS ALL HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO ADDRESS THEIR CARBON FOOTPRINTS
SOLUTIONS 11
Images courtesy of Vodacom
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