Extended Project Outcomes March-September 2023: Best Practice Case Studies

The project Stimulating Sustainable Resource Use in Industry saw six companies from the South African and Namibian producing and manufacturing sector participate in a resource efficiency assessment of their facilities. The expert Alfred Hartzenburg from Green Industry Specialists guided the participants through an individual facility assessment, where the participants identified challenges and potential solutions.

This initiative forms part of the Export Initiative Environmental Protection, GreenTech „Made in Germany“, funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.

Please refer to Stimulating Sustainable Resource Use in Industry  for more information on the project.

At the project closure event in Germany on 16 February 2023, a member of the audience was interested to find out how much water/waste/costs were or could be saved through the resource efficiency interventions identified. We had to answer, that the implementation of the measures were outside of the project scope and that impact was not yet measurable. We thought about this comment and decided to request an extension to the project Stimulating Sustainable Resource Use in Industry by six months until 30 September 2023.

The extension of the project presented an opportunity for the project expert Alfred Hartzenburg to continue mentoring and supporting the industry participants in their resource efficiency efforts. Alfred Hartzenburg met with all the participants to discuss the progress on the implementation of the recommended resource efficiency measures. We learned that since the resource efficiency assessments in August and September 2023, BMW Group Roslyn Plant, Mpact Corrugated Epping (Cape Town) and Mpact Corrugated Walvis Bay (Namibia) had indeed already implemented some of the recommended measures. These three plants agreed to continue participating in the project.

The focus of the extended project phase was for these three plants to measure the impact on resource consumption and keeping track of the return on investment for maintenance or capex investments made. To measure the impact, the participants collated up to date data on plant production and water consumption. Alfred Hartzenburg analysed the new data against a pre-project implementation baseline (benchmarking) for all three plants.

BMW had implemented a number of measures. These included piloting efficiency measures for two of their four cooling towers, re-routing the wash bay effluent to the effluent treatment plant of the paint shop for reuse, and piloting a rainwater harvesting system of the admin buildings at the plant. At the time of the data analysis, it was not yet possible to quantify the amount of water saved through these measures. BMWs is committed to resource efficiency and continues their efforts to raise awareness, to implement effluent reuse projects and optimise processes reliant on water. In time, these measures will positively reflect on their water balance sheet.

Best Practice Case Studies:

The analysis showed that both, Mpact Corrugated Epping and Mpact Corrugated Walvis Bay, had significantly improved their water management performance, saved significant water volumes and were able to meet municipal effluent discharge limits! These two plants demonstrate Best Practice in industrial resource efficiency:

• Mpact Corrugated Epping saved 401 kL of municipal water in the boiler system within the first seven months of 2023. This translates to a 4% water saving of the total expected boiler water consumption (baseline period July to December 2022)! Furthermore, by changing the coagulant type in the effluent treatment process, the plant was able to meet municipal effluent discharge limits for Sulphates (SO4), Sulphides (S) and Sodium (Na) concentrations.
• Mpact Corrugated Walvis Bay had ambitiously implemented all recommended resource efficiency measures, achieving water savings amounting to 506 kL water in the 11 months following the resource efficiency assessment conducted in August 2022 against the pre-project baseline (September 2021 to August 2022)! This represents 13% of the plant’s total water consumption. The plant was also able to meet the municipal effluent discharge limit for ammonia by changing the chemicals used for the treatment of boiler make-up water.

The Mpact Group is committed to environmental sustainability and demonstrates this through strong leadership at group and plant level. We have no doubt that such commitment will ensure the sustainability of Mpact’s resource management system.

Equipping industry participants to continue monitoring their resource performance

For industry to improve resource performance, it first needs to understand its resource performance. Identifying, and understanding drivers and variables influencing resource consumption at their facility is a critical first step. To analyse resource performance, industry must identify appropriate indicators for measuring resource efficiency performance. Continued monitoring, data management and a credible data analysis methodology ensures continued resource performance monitoring, as well as setting and meeting new targets.

On 21 September 2023, Alfred Hartzenburg held a workshop for the industry participants to equip them with these critical skills and to facilitate the continuation of resource efficiency monitoring and improvements at their plants.