"Our access to, and use of, energy and receptivity to alternative and renewable energy sources in the future is going to determine whether our businesses are sustainable, whether we'll attract and generate investment for broader economic growth and social development and whether, ultimately, we will save the planet for ourselves and future generations," says Valerie Geen, Director of Climate and Energy at the National Business Initiative (NBI).

Understanding the significance of energy and climate alongside many other challenges we face in our society, requires visionary leadership especially from government and business. It also requires long-term and innovative thinking as we come under increasing pressure to transform how we do business, how we integrate our business strategies and how we forge partnerships and a collective approach to tackling problems which might appear insurmountable.

When the NBI approached big business in 2005 to support the Voluntary Energy Accord in an attempt to support the implementation of the country's Energy Efficiency Strategy aimed at an overall energy saving of 12% by 2015, business persuasion eventually led to 24 companies and six business associations signing up to save energy.

Looking back at what has been accomplished and lessons learned over the past three years, Green sums up the experience by saying, "We have witnessed a team of engineers, who were assigned by their CEOs to serve on the technical committee of the Accord, transform beyond simply carrying out their assigned responsibility to seriously taking up the challenge with increasing zeal, commitment and passion.

"There has been greater willingness on the part of business to work with government in finding solutions to our energy challenges through commitment of their own resources such as time, expertise and investment in energy efficiency measures.

There has also been a growing appreciation from the signatories themselves to work co-operatively in sharing best practice, joint problem solving and exchange of approaches and information while respecting areas of competitiveness.

"In an Assessment Report of the Accord published at the end of 2008, 18 of the companies who were able to supply data reported a saving of 224 000 GWhrs over the period of 2007-2008.

This translates into a saving of 730 000 average household consumption of energy for the year. In addition, they made a collective investment of R9-billion of their own money into energy efficiency measures. This is a significant achievement given the absence of legislation and enforcement, as well as the low price of electricity at the time. "

A replication and expansion of this effort would go a long way in sustaining the future of our economy amid increasing electricity prices and tenuous supply we'll be faced with over the next few years as we expand our power generation capacity and pursue alternative sources of energy."

The experience of the Accord has also highlighted the following lessons:

Corporate Leadership

Companies who have demonstrated the greatest success in making strides to reaching their energy saving targets and demonstrating changes in their business operations have had buy-in and support of their CEOs. Energy has been incorporated into the company's core business strategy. In so doing, these companies have adopted a comprehensive approach of allocating human resources and budgets to lead their energy savings drive, improving their data collection and monitoring processes in order to measure their performance and adding responsibilities and accountability to the key performance indicators of relevant personnel.

"With die knowledge that die price of energy is going to become an increasing cost-driver, more businesses need to think long-term about how they can save on future energy costs through their current investments, particularly in infrastructure which is intended to last over decades."

An area requiring further attention which was identified in the assessment of the Accord is that companies might be doing sterling work in energy reduction but are not communicating adequately, internally and externally with their employees, customers, consumers and the general public. In terms of internal communication, it is essential to raise awareness and solicit the buy-in of staff to understand the need to save energy and support the effort. This is particularly important since much can be achieved through behavioural change, and an additional spin-off is that employees may replicate .these changed behaviours into their homes and the choices they make as consumers.

Woolworths and Richards Bay Coal Terminal have demonstrated good examples of this approach. Awareness raising in the case of Woolworths included an educational video for staff, an explanation of the monetary value of a kilowatt hour and incentives for stores which demonstrated savings. In the case of Richards Bay Coal Terminal, it took a campaign approach to saving energy and even reached out to its supply chain.

With the knowledge that the price of energy is going to become an increasing cost-driver, more businesses need to think long-term about how they can save on future energy costs through their current investments, particularly in infrastructure which is intended to last over decades.

Energy efficiency is not only about reducing electricity consumption. Those companies who understand this have also looked at energy intensity and, in so doing, are making different choices about the efficiency of equipment they invest in. The use of diesel, petrol and gas are also important to measure if the view adopted is also to mitigate against climate change.

For newcomers who want to begin an energy efficiency drive, the next step, after a statement from the CEO, is an audit of the company's use of energy and the establishment of a baseline against which future performance can be measured. The information gleaned from the audit can then inform business strategy, skills requirements, investment decisions, monitoring, measuring and reporting.

A final lesson from the Accord is to identify the low-hanging fruit and these include awareness raising and education of employees and customers, changing of lighting and installation of metering and dashboards that help demonstrate improvement over a period of time. Companies that have approached energy efficiency more strategically and holistically have started to see savings in water consumption, ways of reducing carbon emissions and have started investing in totally energy efficient buildings in their Greenfield initiatives.

Government Leadership

The commitment by government to the Accord came through the Department of Minerals and Energy and much progress has been made by government in motivating for requisite legislation and building, motor vehicle and equipment standards as well as incentives. Nineteen municipalities were recently awarded with budgets to stimulate energy efficient projects. Government also started to respond to skills requirements and research opportunities, awareness raising and communication through its various agencies.

It is imperative that government continues to play a championing role in driving energy efficiency and a good starting point is a more integrated planning and implementation approach across all departments that have a role to play in driving the reduction of energy.

Apart from strategic alignment, a good platform to lead from is through example and given that government owns in the region of 140 000 buildings, and since buildings are significant users of energy and emitters of carbon, up to 20% of electricity savings of the country could be derived from these buildings. To achieve this, government could learn from the lessons of industry and pursue a similar model as outlined for corporate leadership.

More importantly though, is the need for government to create an enabling environment for business and society to take their cue from. This includes a clear and unambiguous statement about the need to conserve energy in the face of security challenges, price increases, climate change, and major infrastrucrural developments and ambitions to grow the economy. In order to galvanise all of business and society, there is greater need for signals through legislation, comprehensive standards, incentives and investment by government in new forms of energy that will open the markets for further investment. The latter will go a long way to stimulate the certainty that business requires to make its commitments.

The need to think global and act local

A number of developed countries have adopted a low carbon pathway and huge investments in sustainable and alternative energy solutions have been made by developing economies such as China and Brazil. Such trends place South Africa under pressure in terms of attracting foreign investment and remaining competitive. While everyone awaits the outcome of Copenhagen in 2009, there are all kinds of positioning for first mover advantage and those who recognise that the world's resources are not limitless and that climate change may confound all other plans for growth and development. Some are setting a new agenda for the dawning of a new age.

For South Africa, this presents the challenge of pri-oritisation. Clearly, poverty alleviation and other social challenges deserve equal attention. In order to think global and act local, it is important for South Africa, as a nation, to agree on how to respond to both the pressures of the global challenge versus the local challenge.

While South Africa must address imbalances in its society, the response need not be an 'either/or' type of response. Instead, there should be agreement that we need to participate in the global economy, to participate in setting the new rules of engagement and that business, in particular, needs to keep its eye on these mounting pressures with its own battle plan of responsive action.

This requires developing a state of preparedness by taking stock of its carbon footprint including energy consumption, developing its own thoughts about the risks and opportunities associated with operating in a global environment and clarifying its own position and requirements for support from the South African government as it engages in the international arena.

Acting locally also means that we have to acknowledge that trying to sustain our businesses in a global environment means that we have to address the skills challenges urgently, we have to ensure that technology transfer from developed nations must come with tangible and measurable conditions that will build our local capacity to produce and manufacture goods for a low carbon economy.

The fact that business in South Africa is largely the domain of big business requires that we think about the plight of small, medium and micro enterprises that either form part of our value chains and are therefore tied into our carbon footprint but who may not have the skills and resources to adopt more energy efficient practices if they come under pressure to do so. Instead, such pressure may kill their business and remain a barrier to new entrepreneurs entering the economy. Inasmuch as procurement practices may need to change in a low carbon environment, government and business need to work co-operatively in ensuring that a movement to a low carbon economy, which would include energy efficiency, renewable energy and other alternative energy sources, creates space for new business and employment opportunities.

A useful way of looking at energy efficiency is to locate it within cross-cutting issues such as climate change, human development and economic growth and development. In terms of a country response to energy efficiency, there is need of a national campaign that drives the message that if we do not urgently play our roles as individuals and organisations in conserving energy and vigorously pursuing alternative energy solutions, the lights may go out for all of us.

"Acting locally also means that we have to acknowledge that trying to sustain our businesses in a global environment means that we have to address the skills challenges urgently.”

New models of thinking

Underpinning the need to conserve energy and respond to climate change we need to challenge our traditional ways of thinking and this will require an attitude adjustment. It will mean that while business will still be in the business of making money, they will need to place more emphasis on making money responsibly through investment choices and leveraging competitors and consumers to do the same. These opportunities would need to be weighed up against the risk of not doing anything.

It will also be important to spot the opportunities for developing and promoting new products that are more efficient in their composition, usage, durability and capacity for reuse or recycling into new products. To support this new shift in thinking might require new business models, new aggregation of skills sets, new communication toolkits that embrace the diversity of culture, language and strive for simplicity in the messaging. Ultimately, new models of thinking will also need a re-examination of ethical issues and a recognition that the world is evolving.