Carbon calculator now available online

The launch last week of a service that allows exporters in the SA fruit and wine industries to determine their companies’ greenhouse gas emissions (their “carbon footprint”) will benefit firms’ bottom line, project coordinators tell FTW. “Definitely, yes, it will reduce their costs. Once they figure out their base line carbon footprint, they’ll see their emission hot spots where they can conserve energy expenditure and thus greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity and fuel are the main (energy consumables) for South African companies, and where inefficiencies in their use is determined it results in cost savings,” said Shelly Fuller, project manager for “Confronting Climate Change: An SA Fruit and Wine Initiative.” A Carbon Calculator is now available on line (at www.climatefruitandwine. co.za) to companies in the fruit and wine supply chain who can enter information about their transport and energy use activities and learn the quantities of emissions they are producing. “We then give the companies broad direction where to go to reduce emissions, like what products to use to conserve energy,” said Fuller. Fruit and wine sector stakeholders paid for the initiative when concerns arose that climate change could prove detrimental to SA’s agricultural production. Industry players are also responding to rising consumer demand in the EU and elsewhere for products that can prove they were produced with minimal carbon footprinting. However, the initiative is not a mandatory export requirement, but a way for exporters to meet consumer preferences and as a side benefit reduce production and transportation costs through energy savings.