How I save

Gisela Kaiser, Cape Town

‘It all started with food’, says Gisela Kaiser, Facilities Manager at the City of Cape Town. ‘Last year I wanted to present my management team with “50 actions that could save/change the world”, and in doing my research I read about the enormous environmental impact of eating meat…

‘But once you start trying to live more consciously, you can’t do only one thing… You can’t just not eat meat…

‘So that, really, was the start of my journey – and I like to do whatever I can to talk to people about this. As people we have a great capacity to change, and we will choose the right things to do, if we have the information we need to make those decisions. Look at how we’ve already changed the way we live over the last 100 years – so we can do it again.

‘The first thing I did was to replace our two electric water heaters with one solar water heater – the company I bought it from had a payment plan, so I could pay it off if necessary. That made it a lot easier.

‘Then just before Christmas, I told my children that we should not join the ranks of thoughtless consumers, and that we would buy our home an environmentally friendly gift instead… So, I bought a wormery…

'We use energy-efficient lighting at home now, and are very careful to switch off our appliances at the wall.'

Gisela is impressed by the environmental education her daughters, 12 and 14, receive at school. ‘They are so informed,’ she says. ‘But we discuss saving electricity so much at home that they’re able to take back information to their teachers, too.’

As someone who is responsible for building maintenance and performance at the City, Gisela often gets asked about issues such as air conditioning and central heating – and she has a typically sensible and environmentally responsible answer. ‘If it’s cold, wear more clothing. If it’s hot, layer your clothing, sit quietly, and just chill…’