Electricity + Control December 2016

36 / 44

Launch of new global GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards
GRI has launched, in SouthAfrica, its newGRI Sustainability Report-
ing Standards. SouthAfrica is just the third country to hold an event
launching the new standards, following events in the United States
and Brazil.The launch took place at the Aurecon Centre inTshwane.
GRI is an international, independent, standards organisation
based in the Netherlands. “The GRI Sustainability Reporting
Standards give companies a common language for disclosing
non-financial information with the goal of enhancing corporate
transparency worldwide. The Standards represent the global best
practice for sustainability reporting,” says Bastian Buck, Director
Standards, GRI.
The new Standards, replacing the GRI G4 Guidelines, are a set
of 36 modular standards that facilitate corporate reporting on top-
ics such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water use, and
labour practices. The new format allows GRI to update individual
topics based on market and sustainability needs, without requiring
revisions to the entire set of GRI Standards.
Sonja De Klerk, Aurecon’s Head of Quality, Environment and Sus-
tainability, said: “Sustainability reporting encourages companies to
be more transparent, in an age when organisations are no longer
evaluated solely on the money they generate for shareholders, but
the shared value they create for communities and the way in which
they tackle issues such as environmental protection.”
Enquiries: Email
ROUND UP
Low-Technology Innovation competition
Thursday 10 November 2016 was the final of the Low-Technology
Innovation competition held inMidrand.The students, in teams of up
to three members per team – were challenged to create a low-tech
environmentally friendly innovation using natural, recycled, used
or new components to provide a lighting solution.
The Low-Technology Innovation competition was held in partner-
ship with the Schneider Electric Foundation and Nomade des Mers
Expedition.The French Ministry of Education initiated the partner-
ship between France, the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) and
Schneider Electric.
Launched by the Low-Tech Lab, the Nomade des Mers expedition
is a three-year sailing expedition around the world to promote, test
and prototype low-technologies, as well as to develop the interna-
tional low-tech stakeholder and user community. Low-technologies,
also known as appropriate or frugal technologies, are simple DIY
systems that meet basic needs such as access to water, energy
and food.
The crew of Nomade des Mers is therefore experimenting with
self-sustainability on a boat thanks to those systems. At each
stopover the crew organises workshops and conferences to share
knowledge about technologies. Each discovered system is then
tested on the boat and documented in order to share it online on the
Low-Tech Lab website.The final goal is to create a global database
of low-tech systems as well as a global community of designers,
engineers and handymen to work collaboratively on the improve-
ment of existing systems or to solve issues raised by partner NGOs.
The winner of the €500 prize was the Flip Lamp byTeam Owl-eye
tech (F’SASEC, VUT).This light works as you turn it vertically. Each
time you turn it, it lights up for 18 seconds and it is powered by
pressure, wooden piston in the pipe. No electricity was used. The
material used comprises a two litre plastic bottle, a plastic pipe,
wire, wood and a LED light.
Enquiries:Thabang Senona. Email
ENERGY + ENVIROFICIENCY
Bastian Buck, Director
Standards, GRI.
Sonja De Klerk, Head of Quality,
Environment and Sustainability, Aurecon.
The winning team: Clayton Maartens, Luvo Dubula, and Lafras
Magabe with their Fliplamp.
Louis-Marie de Certaines, Hugo Daniel and Elina Reynaud (Nomade des Mers
Expedition) with Professor Alexandre Sebastiani, representative of the French
Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research and director of the
F'SASEC (French South African Schneider Electric Education Centre).
Electricity+Control December ‘16 30