Private healthcare company Netcare Group replaced 108 000 inefficient lights and light fittings with modern energy efficient alternatives, and reduced its light load by 40%, offsetting its hospitals’ carbon footprint by 16 000 t/y of carbon dioxide, says Netcare Group CEO Dr Richard Friedland.

The group received the South African Energy Efficiency Confederation (SAEEC) Commercial Energy Project of the Year 2018 award for the project, which delivered energy savings of more than 17 000 000 kWh in the first year of operation.

This project is one of 63 energy-saving projects undertaken by Netcare since 2013, which have reduced the carbon footprint of the group’s facilities by 47 000 t/y. This earned the group the SAECC Commercial Corporate Company of the Year 2018 award for its sustainability programme, he adds.

These initiatives involved the use of heat pumps and waste heat to generate domestic hot water, ensure that optimisation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, and the implementation of building management sys Dyna included tems, the installation of solar photovoltaic panels at 53 of the group’s facilities and the lighting retrofit project.

“The implementation of our various energy- saving projects across our facilities have resulted in a 17% reduction in energy consumption per hospital bed in use when comparing the baseline year of 2013 to the group’s actual energy consumption in 2017,” Friedland highlights.

Netcare has emphasised the improvement of energy efficiencies at its facilities throughout South Africa over the past five years. These achievements are a group effort, but Friedland lauds the Netcare sustainability team under Johan Durand for driving the achievement of the group’s challenging environmental goals.

“No company in the world today can afford to ignore the environmental impact of its operations. As a responsible corporate citizen, we have invested significantly in green technologies and environment-friendly and sustainable practices.”