Second Energy Efficiency Market Place: Eighth Energy Efficiency Forum for Commercial Buildings

The eighth Energy Efficiency Forum took the form of a market place, following on the success of the first Energy Efficiency Market Place in December 2010. The Market Place was held at the Old Mutual head office in Pinelands again on 10 November 2011. The event gave credible suppliers of energy efficiency goods and services the opportunity to showcase their products and services to commercial building owners and managers. There were approximately 137 forum members in attendance with 27 innovative and exciting suppliers showcasing their products and services.

The event was kicked off by a welcome and informative presentation by Sarah Ward (Head: Energy and Climate Change, City of Cape Town). Sarah Ward provided information on the City of Cape Town’s electricity consumption figures and gave an update on the effects of blackouts, the recession and tariff increases on Cape Town’s electricity consumption. She also revealed the benefits of the Electricity Savings Campaign and the EE Forum in reducing electricity consumption and the importance of energy efficiency interventions in view of the increasing cost and unpredictability of electricity.

Click here to download Sarah Ward’s presentation.

This was followed by a presentation by Sheryl Ozinsky covering matters such as COP17, Climate Smart Cape Town and what the City is doing in confronting the challenges of energy and climate change. The presentation was thought provoking, passionate and a call to arms to work together in facing these challenges. It also spurred much interest amongst delegates on both the importance of COP17, international co-ordination of action, as well as individual, local action for change.

Click here to download Sheryl Ozinsky’s presentation.

It was then the suppliers’ turn to showcase their goods. Suppliers were provided the opportunity to give a short presentation (30 seconds to one minute) on their product or service to EE Forum members. Suppliers were provided with only one PowerPoint slide containing their logo and a response to this statement: “You must come and see my service/product because ...”, containing no more than 3 bullet points. All the suppliers were concise, engaging and informative in their presentations.

Click here to download the full list of energy efficiency goods and services suppliers, including a brief description of their product/s and contact details.

Each supplier was provided with a table to showcase their goods and services. The EE Forum members were then given ample time to investigate the supplier offerings, ask questions and network whilst the suppliers were given an opportunity to market and promote their products. The Market Place ended with a generous give-away in the form of a raffle courtesy of Ceratech.

The second Market Place was by all accounts a resounding success with both EE Forum members and suppliers commenting on the value of this platform for promoting and stimulating energy efficiency interventions. The success of the event is also clear from the evaluation forms we ask participants to complete, with 94.4 % participants strongly agreeing that the event provided them with valuable information and 88.6 % asserting that they are motivated to make improvements in their buildings or company through what they’d learned at the Forum.

We look forward to hosting the third Market Place in late 2012 and would like to thank all participants for their enthusiasm, engagement and gusto in this event. We would also like to thank all the EE Forum partners and sponsors for their contributions and hard work in ensuring the continued success of the Energy Efficiency Forum.