Downstream-focused petroleum products group Engen will focus on greening more of its retail sites in its 19 territories across sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, then turn to its depots and offices across the group in the future.

Engen completed a two-year greening pilot where it identified the most effective and efficient sustainability interventions for its purposes, which can massively decrease its carbon footprint and operating costs when rolled out more broadly, says the company, which has made multiple energy- and water-saving alterations to selected service stations in neighbouring countries.

Engen construction and engineering manager Cecil van Niekerk says Engen initiated the pilot project in 2008 with its Noordoewer service station franchise on the Namibian side of the border with South Africa. Engen included its retail partners – Wimpy and Corner Bakery – in the project, securing buy-in and identifying various ‘quick-win’ interventions upfront with easily demonstrable and significant benefits.

Engen then took the winning technologies from the Noord-oewer project and applied them to a similar project in Botswana.

With two green sites under his belt, Van Niekerk was armed with a series of interventions that he felt could bring Engen’s sites in line with international environ- mental standards, and therefore, the company decided to put this to the test at the Rundu 1-Stop in the Caprivi Strip, north-east of Namibia.
Technologies at Rundu Site
A sunlight harvester has been installed, which projects sunlight into the retail areas of the site. In turn, lux sensors on the internal lights automatically dim as the sunlight increases. Similarly, light-emitting diode (LED) lights with motion sensors illuminate the forecourt canopy and enable the lights to self-dim at periods when there is no traffic on the forecourt. LED lighting is also used on all signage and other lighting, while motion sensors in storerooms, change rooms and cold-rooms have been installed and all light switches removed in rooms with low human traffic and use.

In an area where average temperatures are upwards of 30 °C, cooling and refrigeration are paramount, says Engen. The Rundu 1-Stop is protected from the searing heat, by thermal reflective roof paint and window film, which reduces temperature build-up. Solar-powered roof fans extract hot air from the roof void, while carbon dioxide and humid- ity sensors, which are built into the Wimpy extractor hoods, activate the extractor fans when smoke is detected. The site also boasts an indirect evaporative cooling system instead of refrigerated air-conditioning, which is driven by solar power, adds Van Niekerk.

With water being such a precious commodity in much of Namibia, the emphasis on effec- tive water management is vital, he says. The Engen 1-Stop in Rundu has mechanisms in place that allow for water harvesting and solar water heating. Water-wise taps and showerheads and waterless urinals are also installed across the site.

“The average payback period of these interventions is no more than two years. “We believe it is well worth our dealers investing in a few solutions that offer quick payback, and to take it from there,” concludes Van Niekerk.