Earlier this year the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC-SA) celebrated its 20-year anniversary by hosting its fifth Biennial Industrial Efficiency Conference at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria. We caught up with Ndivhuho Raphulu to find out more about this milestone and see where this national programme is heading.
The world is moving towards a greener society and South Africa is no different in this regard. This is where the NCPC-SA plays a huge role for the country.
The NCPC-SA is an Industrial Support Programme of the dtic, which is hosted and managed by the Council for Scientific and industrial Research (CSIR). The central impact of the NCPC-SA is to facilitate and drive the transition of South African industry to a green economy–circular, low carbon, sustainable, and climate resilient.
According to Raphulu, over the last 20 years the NCPC-SA has supported industry through resource efficient and cleaner production interventions, with projects specialising in energy, water and materials. The largest of these was the Industrial Energy Efficiency Project (IEE), which ran from 2010 in response to the national energy crisis.
He explains that “The IEE project impact has amounted to over6 500 GWh of energy saved, which translates into R5.3 billion in savings for industry and 6.4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions mitigated. These savings were achieved through the implementation of energy management principles, often without significant investment. In addition, the programme resulted in 6 330 professionals, 314 experts and 199 local trainers trained; seven occupational qualifications registered with the National Qualification Framework; and 13 original training courses developed.”
Through the resource efficient and cleaner production methodology, the NCPC-SA encourages companies to use less energy, water, and input materials, in the production process and by doing so save on the production costs and environmental footprint of manufactured products.
Personal History
Raphulu has plenty of experience within this sector. From 1998 to 2005 he worked for Eskom, first as an environmental practitioner before moving on to become the Sustainability Advisor at the power facility. Thereafter Raphulu joined the CSIR to manage the recently-established NCPC-SA.
According to Raphulu, he really enjoys the industry. He enjoys big picture scenarios, especially looking at how activities respond to the triple bottom line objectives. Raphulu is a fan of collaboration between diverse stakeholders whilst developing new ideas is another passion.
20 Years and still going strong
As the organisation celebrates 20 years of excellence this year, Raphulu is eager to look back on their achievements. Over the last two decades the NCPC-SA has not only made tracks on South Africa but has also had a few global projects which has increased their footprint significantly. This has placed them as a global thought leader in resource efficiency and cleaner production (RECP) thematic space.
“Some of the NCPC-SA key programmes are the Industrial Energy Efficiency, Industrial Water Efficiency, Industrial Symbiosis (diverting waste from landfill), and most recently the Eco-Industrial Park Initiative was launched in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
“The Eco-Industrial parks approach is likely drive the impact of the NCPC-SA in the next 20-years. It is a means for companies to gain a competitive advantage through collaboration in a shared geographical location. The benefits include automatic industrial symbiosis–the physical exchange of materials, energy, water and by-products – eliminating a waste of resources and reducing environmental impact. The EIP concept also embraces community collaboration thereby fostering inclusive and sustainable development. The advantage of the EIP concept is that it can be adopted by new or existing industrial parks,” says Raphulu.
Raphulu continues, “A eco-industrial park, or EIP, is defined as a community of businesses located on a common property in which businesses seek to achieve enhanced environmental, economic, and social performance through collaboration in managing environmental and resource issues.” Furthermore, the Director of the NCPC-SA notes that the key to success over the last 20 years has been the creation of the growing base of professionals in the fields of energy management and resource optimisation.
“In the beginning all the specialists we used were from the USA and Europe. Not only does South Africa now have its own base of experts and trainers, but many of these professionals are also now exporting their skill across the African continent, supporting implementation and technical interventions to optimise and improve production processes, resource efficiency and sustainability,” adds Ndivhuho Raphulu.
Future
The past has been successful for the NCPC-SA and Raphulu, and although there are always improvements to be made, one sees far more positives than negatives from the last two decades.
So, where to now for the organisation as well as Ralphulu? The year of 2023 will provide more challenges to the NCPC-SA as they shift focus from plant assessments to actual implementation – this will have a far bigger impact on both companies and the environment.
“The other strategic focus is on facilitating implementation of the tools. In the past we focused on developing several tools in support of the implementation of resource efficient and cleaner production (RECP) activities. The next step is to focus on the use and implementation of these tools,” explains Raphulu.
New Projects
Changes are afoot at the NCPC-SA but that has not deterred Raphulu from new projects. We can expect more projects throughout 2023 and beyond, as he explains.
“The EIP programme is the best platform to make an impact because we have access to a cluster of companies and influence transition to circular, low carbon, and climate resilience economy.
Through EIP, a community of businesses can work together to enhance their combined environmental, economic, and social performance.
A new project being launched in February 2023 with UNIDO will take the interventions in industrial parks to the next level, driving the implementation of renewable and sustainable energy solutions in the parks.
Other focus areas will include the ever-critical clothing and textile sector, with a large internationally funded project, and continued work around life cycle management and circularity in the sector.
“It is also our goal to partner with other CSIR experts to assist multiple sectors to better understand their carbon and environmental footprints, allowing them to take proactive steps to guard against looming international trade barriers,” he adds.
Conclusion
According to Raphulu, in order for South Africa to improve in terms of sustainability, the country needs to take decisive action to focus on green industry as a vehicle to revive and build a new manufacturing industry.
He makes it clear that the NCPC-SA is there as a support vehicle to help and support business in implementing measures to become sustainable and move to a low carbon footprint.
As a legacy, Raphulu says he’d like using the NCPC-SA to transfer lessons and skills to the African continent.
