Widespread rains over large parts of South Africa recently have led to rivers breaking their banks and, in some cases, flooding streets and homes. The volume of water has raised concerns among agricultural economists over possible damage to crops.
The irony is that despite the rain, South Africa remains a water-stressed country, receiving less than half the global average rainfall and experiencing significant regional variations in water availability. Climate change, including droughts and increasing evaporation, exacerbates the issue, putting pressure on water resources. Poor infrastructure, mismanagement, and increasing demand due to population and economic growth further contribute to the crisis.
It’s for these reasons and others that Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (Manufacturing) (Pty) Limited (“Ford South Africa”) is boosting its efforts and investment in reducing its water consumption as well as its energy and carbon footprint. On this Earth Day, Rhys Davies, Operations Director for Ford South Africa discusses the progress being made at the Silverton Manufacturing Plant: “The most recent example is the recycling of effluent water in our Silverton plant back into the Paint Shop, where it’s repurposed in a perpetual loop with no wastage and eliminating the need to buy in new water.
“A lot of South Africans will look out of the windows of their homes, offices and vehicles and assume the country has as much water as it needs. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. That’s why measures to conserve and reuse water are critically important, and our new water recycling project will save almost 15 million litres of water a year.” Plans are also afoot to replicate the closed-loop, zero-waste cycle of re-using water elsewhere in the plant, notes Davies.
The plant’s Paint Shop is also undergoing extensive upgrades that will further improve the paint application processes and quality, while achieving greater energy efficiency.
These initiatives are complemented by the plant’s solar carpark, which uses more than 30,000 solar panels to generate 13.4MW of electricity, which is sufficient to power the entire plant during the day. The company is investigating the installation of batteries, as well as other sources of renewable energy to enable it to fully operate independent of the national grid.
Davies cites several additional investments that are reducing the plant’s footprint, in line with Ford Motor Company’s global goal of carbon neutrality:
- A new scrapyard has been constructed that increases the amount of cardboard, paper, and plastic waste that is sorted on site and recycled, which is in line with Ford Motor Company’s objective of reaching zero waste in landfills across its worldwide operations. The Silverton plant team continues to investigate other alternatives for its waste to turn this into a sustainable by-product that can benefit both the environment and future business opportunities.
- Recycling bins are located throughout the Silverton plant, and employees are encouraged to recycle their plastic, paper and cardboard waste to help reduce their environmental impact.
- The Paint Shop is being expanded and modernised with the latest technologies to improve paint quality and durability, while also reducing the facility’s reliance on gas and electricity.
Click to view the recent video of the Green Initiatives at the Ford Silverton Manufacturing Plant.
