Creating green jobs in Joburg

JOHANNESBURG rates highly as a green city in Africa, with strong policies and environmental governance.

Issues of sustainability are critical, says executive mayor Parks Tau (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)Issues of sustainability are critical, says executive mayor Parks Tau (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)This is according to Paul Kielstra, a contributing editor at The Economist Intelligence Unit, which has just completed the African Green City Index. His revelation formed part of the kick-off of the African Sustainable Cities Tour, undertaken by Siemens, the diversified technology company, to combat climate change and provide opportunities such as job creation.

The tour was launched at Turbine Hall in Newtown on 15 November.

Creating green jobs in sustainable cities is top of the agenda for Siemens, and Africa has taken centre stage as it is the world’s fastest urbanising region and one of the fastest growing markets. Given this, the multinational has decided to invest €200-million (about R2,2-billion) over two years into building partnerships with African businesses, which will lead to the creation of approximately 500 green jobs.

“Siemens will increasingly look to rapidly growing economies like Africa to meet our growth targets,” said the president and chief executive officer, Peter Löscher. “Creating local green jobs will enable us to meet the growing demand for eco-friendly products and services throughout Africa.

“It is not just about selling goods and services, though,” Löscher added. “Our portfolio corresponds to Africa’s needs and Siemens has products and services across all of our business sectors to address the continent’s urgent needs in the areas of energy, water, mobility, infrastructure, industry and health care.”

COP 17
Johannesburg will benefit from these plans greatly and this is where the African Green City Index comes in. It was commissioned by Siemens to aid efforts and better understand urban sustainability.

The touch-screen water footprint calculator gives you tips to save water. The touch-screen water footprint calculator gives you tips to save water. A preview of the results was given at the launch in Newtown, but the full results will only be revealed at COP 17, the 17th United Nations Conference of the Parties to be held in Durban from 28 November to 9 December.

Kielstra explained that the index looked at 15 cities from 11 African countries, ranking how green they were, what challenges they faced, where they could improve and areas in which they were doing well.

Capital cities and leading business centres were chosen for their size and importance, and water, sanitation, air quality, environmental governance, energy and carbon emissions, land use, transport, and waste were examined in each of the cities.

“Joburg’s performance was above average overall and never below average in any category,” he said. “The city of Johannesburg is one of the greenest cities in the index.

“Its environmental performance is bolstered by having the second highest amount of green space among the 15 index cities and an extensive bus network, as well as generally robust environmental policies, especially for clean energy and congestion reduction,” he added.

Congestion
Challenges that the index revealed for Joburg were that more than 90 percent of electricity generated came from coal; heavy congestion and a reliance on private vehicles; urban sprawl; the second highest water consumption; and less than 5 percent of waste is recycled.

“Overall, the city is doing well even though there are some weaknesses to overcome,” Kielstra said.

Executive Mayor Parks Tau understood the challenges and also spoke of the difficulty of accessing carbon funding. However, he also recognised the necessity of measures such as the African Green City Index in places such as Johannesburg.

Computer gadgets such as these show how to improve water and energy sustainabilityComputer gadgets such as these show how to improve water and energy sustainability“We were keen participants in the Green City Index as it gives us a baseline from which to work and also provides a benchmark to take best practice from other cities,” he said.

He also believed that the outcomes of the study would be useful in the implementation of the recently launched Growth and Development Strategy, GDS2040. “It ties in with GDS2040 as we want to ensure programmes in the context of sustainability that will grow local industry and create jobs.”

This was also where COP17 would play a part for Joburg as a green city: “COP17 is critical to engage with both developing and developed nations to learn best practice in terms of environmental management and sustainability.

“As a city, issues of sustainability are critical,” he added.

Climate change
The African Green City Index fitted into Siemens’ plans to combat climate change and create opportunities by building expertise and focusing on local skills development, said Löscher, adding that he felt it would lead to the creation of more than just the 500 jobs the company had promised.

“In addition to the 500 new jobs that we will create, our green efforts here will also create many more jobs for our partners and suppliers.” Siemens has 2 000 local suppliers in South Africa and 1 000 throughout the rest of Africa.

Its African Sustainable Cities Tour will travel to various South African and other African cities to meet customers, financial institutions, mayors and ministers to discuss their needs and the role that local people and businesses will be able to play.