National Eco-Industrial Park Day

On Monday, 10 October 2022, the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) hosted a National Eco-Industrial Park Day at the CSIR ICC, Pretoria.

The event was attended by more than 80 guests including industrial park stakeholders, suppliers and international experts who unpacked Eco-Industrial Park concepts.  There were also parallel breakaway sessions that focussed on three thematic areas that are critical to the sustainability of industrial parks – water, energy and waste.

While this was a closed event, the presentation are available below (the recording will also be available in a few days)

Speakers and Presentations

Jenitha Badul is the Senior Manager/Policy Advisor for Sustainability Programmes and Projects, at the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and has been with the Department since February 2003. Her professional experience is on project planning, coordination and implementation of green economy initiatives across spheres of government, in collaboration with and donor country partners and United Nations Agencies and coordination of the National Green Fund Programme. Dr Badul coordinates both multi-lateral (Partnership for Action on the Green Economy, Switch Africa Green and Partnering for Green Growth and Global Goals) and bilateral donor funded programmes. Other coordination activities include event greening programmes. Jenitha holds a PhD in Plant Pathology (University of Durban-Westville), a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Management, a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (University of South Africa) an Executive Certificate in Environmental Governance, (Graduate Institute on International and Development Studies, Geneva- Switzerland) and a Certificate in Strategic Business Management (University of Cape Town).

Presentation: P4G: A Delivery Platform for Climate and SDG Impact

He commenced his career at the CSIR’s former Materials Science and Technology division in 1991, focussing on materials beneficiation and high temperature metallurgical process applications. Kevin joined the NCPC-SA at its inception in 2003, focussing on developing internal capacity and knowledge of Cleaner Production within the NCPC-SA, for it to fulfil its mandate.
Kevin is an NCPC-SA recognised Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) Expert and has facilitated the capacitation of many of the Experts providing services to the Centre today. Kevin has been instrumental with initiating the NCPC-SA’s Industrial Water Efficiency Project, Cleantech SMME Accelerator Programme and was a key content contributor for the development of the Centre’s original RECP 2-day End User and Expert Level training courses.
In 2014 he relocated from Gauteng to Kwa Zulu Natal to head up the NCPC-SA’s Durban Office where he facilitated the launch of the NCPC-SA’s KZN Industrial Symbiosis Project for the province in collaboration with Dept. of Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs. He has played leading roles in supporting the Strategic Water Sector Cooperation Partnership Agreement between Denmark and the South African Department of Water and Sanitation. More recently Kevin was assigned to provide strategic oversight to the Centre’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Project and facilitate its close-out, after more than 10 years, providing him with good insight into the various aspects of energy, water and waste within the industry environment.

Presentation – What Interventions and Opportunities does Energy Efficiency offer to Industrial Parks

Kirsten Freimann is an expert for skills development and employment promotion. She is director of the GIZ-implemented project “Career Path Development for Employment (CPD4E)” which develops innovative solutions for inclusive employment creation in South Africa’s transition to a decarbonised economy to address the emerging opportunities for enterprise and skills development. Kirsten has been gathering 18 years of experience in managing projects for sustainable development on three different continents. She is passionate about innovation in skills development and sustainability. In Berlin she developed one of the first digital MA-study courses in Germany. At the German Academy for International Cooperation she renovated the competence building programs. In Palestine she successfully introduced the first dual study program in the Middle East, establishing partnerships with 250 private companies to unlock employment opportunities for youth. Since 2020 Kirsten is supporting the skills development for South Africa’s transition to a green economy. She holds a master’s degree in education from the Catholic University Berlin and another master’s degree in political science from the Free University in Berlin, her hometown. In its centre Kirsten together with other visionaries built her own apartment in a ground-breaking ecologic timber-constructed multi-storey residential building which stores 1.500 tons of CO2.

Presentation: Career Path Development for Employment: Skills Development for Just Transition

Dr Anthony Gewer has for the past 22 years provided strategic and technical support to government, donors, industry and institutions, around strengthening pathways for successful youth labour market transitions. During this time, he has worked with leading development organisations to demonstrate innovative solutions to skills and employment promotion for marginalized youth.

Through his extensive work in vocational skills development, Anthony has designed interventions to address labour market activation, employment-oriented curriculum, institutional management, teaching and learning, entrepreneurship, and workplace learning. He has a particular interest in the unlocking of demand for skills in contexts of high informality. He has written and presented extensively on youth labour market transitions in a developing context. He has a PhD in Education Policy with a specific focus on vocational education and the factors that contribute to successful transitions from school to work.

Presentation – Inclusive growth through infrastructure development and green economy: growing entrepreneurial ecosystems

Dr. Ernst Grigat is a chemist. He started an industry career with Bayer and Lanxess that led him from lab research to production manager to site head. His professional pathway included several international assignments and many international projects.

His last assignment was to help establish the three large chemical parks called CHEMPARK in Germany, lead the CHEMPARK for a decade, and attract significant investments into the parks. Under his leadership, the CHEMPARK sites grew as the leading chemical parks in Europe.

In 2017, he left the industry and set up his own consultancy. In 2020, he joined Sapherior as a partner. Sapherior provides senior consultancy for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Grigat is the lead partner for international industrial parks and zones. Recent projects include sites from Shell, DOW, Novartis, Bayer as well as SMEs in various countries.

In addition to industrial and private equity clients, he is committed to share his experience in developing industrial areas, supporting organizations like GIZ and UNIDO.

Presentation – Principles for Eco-Industrial Parks

Thami Klassen is the Acting Chief Director of Economic Infrastructure & Logistics – responsible for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) designations, facilitation of investment projects and development of state owned Industrial Parks (IPs). Prior to joining the dtic, he studied Extractive Metallurgy and Business Management and worked for Anglo American Corporation and Rand Gold Refineries Mines. He established and operated his own companies, Umzantsi Creative Solutions and Welela Africa for 10 years, offering various services in ICT, call centres, mobile telecommunication products and tourism consulting services. He is also a founder member of Soweto Tourism Development Association (Sotoda) and Joburg Big 5 Company. He has worked extensively with various non-governmental formations to advance involvement of marginalised communities into the mainstream of the local economies.

He is responsible for oversight and roll out of new SEZs, IPs, coordination and development of Township Economy and District Development Model (DDM) to achieve localisation and increased exports through cluster based industrialisation, from across the various regions.    His work also entails stakeholder leadership and management of the public and private interests to achieve the implementation of Spatial Industrial Development Strategy, which will ensure sustainable economic development and growth in the SEZs, IPs and the Township Economy initiatives.

Presentation: Towards an Integrated Approach on the Implementation of Spatial Industrial Development (SID)

Dr Faith Lawrence serves as Country Coordinator South Africa- for GIZ’s Global Natural Resources Stewardship Programme. Her work focuses on advancing collaborative multi-stakeholder partnerships and supporting governance and resilience efforts and the efficient use of natural resources in special economic zones,  industrial parks, Cities and catchments.

Presentation – Locating Water Stewardship in Industrial Parks: Towards sustainable industrialisation and collaboration

Hannes is the manager of the Green Industry Platform, one of the three platforms that make up the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership

A mechanical engineer with 20 years of experience working within the industry, government and NGO sectors, Hannes has an active interest in developing market-driven solutions that can deliver extensive upscaling of existing industry support programmes. His specific area of expertise is in resource efficiency and industrial decarbonisation, with a particular focus on bridging the communication gaps between related public and private sector stakeholders

Presentation: Introduction to I-Go

Victor Manavhela served as Deputy Director: Environmental Planning and Impact Assessment at the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Gauteng Province before joining the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) as Regional Manager in 2013.

He is currently a National Programme Manager for the NCPC-SA, leading a multi-disciplinary team of project managers who deliver resource efficient and cleaner production (RECP) interventions including energy, water and material efficiency.

Victor holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management with a thesis focused on Industrial Symbiosis Implementation in South Africa, preceded by a Bachelor of Environmental Sciences Degree. He has vast experience in sustainability including green economy and circular economy. He has participated on international platforms including the Aluminium Global Standard development championed by IUCN in Geneva.

Presentation: ISP as an enabler for circular economy at Industrial Parks

Princes is a policy expert with 5 years’ experience in international development across various industries including Sustainability, Tech,  Impact Assessment, Education, Public Health, Private Sector Development. Her highest qualification is a MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics, and she is currently completing an MA in eScience at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her interests include leveraging data for societal development and contributing to sustainable finance taxonomies that are progressive in addressing historical exclusion and reaching the most vulnerable.

Presentation – The GRI: An introduction to Sustainability Reporting Standards

Nontsikelelo Mngqibisa is a researcher at the Atlantis Special Economic Zone (ASEZ), while pursuing her DPhil in Sustainable Development at the Centre for Sustainable transitions (CST) at Stellenbosch University.  She did her MPhil in Sustainable Development at the Sustainability Institute. She has specific experience in the areas of climate resilient infrastructure planning, gender mainstreaming, civil engineering, local water governance having worked on these sectors in Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Her academic work focuses on urban transitions and their governance and planning, with a focus on sustainability, resilience and liveability.

Presentation: Development of Net Zero Water Strategy and Roadmap for the Atlantis Special Economic Zone

In her role as the NCPC-SA Project Manager, Mbali’s focus is on maximizing team productivity with proactive, cross-functional communication and an organized approach. She has a track record of accomplishing projects on resource efficiency and cleaner production (RECP), conducting monitoring and evaluation on resource efficiency projects, by extrapolating data for analysis and interpretations and developing trend analysis for energy, water, and waste efficiency management projects.

Mbali has a master’s degree in Operations Management and is also a qualified United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) RECP and Energy management System Expert.

Over the last 15 years Mbali has acquired experience working in different manufacturing plants with expertise in process engineering and production management as well as project management.

Due to her unique skills in quality management and collaboration Mbali has been asked to lead several special projects for the NCPC-SA. Most recently Mbali led the Integrated Greening Operations (I-GO) initiative in Africa on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The core feature of the I-GO initiative is an easy-to-use self-assessment tool that quickly determines an SME’s resource efficiency status and provides a tailored list of recommendations along with the specific support services most relevant to their needs.

Mbali’s key interests include resource efficiency with a strong focus on energy management system implementation and execution of sustainability projects. “It is no longer an assumption but a fact that our society does everything with sustainability in mind so that we can preserve the resources for generations to come” says Mbali

Amanda Nyingwa serves as a Technical Advisor on Resilient Economic Zones within the GIZ South Africa -Natural Resources Stewardship Programme (NatuReS). Her experience includes contributing and leading on diverse projects aimed at improving governance mechanisms and supporting institutional strengthening towards sustainable and resource efficient economic zones.

Presentation – Locating Water Stewardship in Industrial Parks: Towards sustainable industrialisation and collaboration

Bernd is senior programme manager at the NCPC-SA, addressing primarily revitalization of government owned industrial parks in South Africa. Current work involves strategy and planning, policy, compliance, investment promotion, governance, financing, sustainability, operations, infrastructure, shared services, research, M&E, green transitions and stakeholder management. He has contributed to policy development for SME development, education, ICT and industrial development.

Bernd has worked in the private sector for most of his career which included running his own company, as management consultant and as internationally certified project/ programme management professional in sustainable development, renewable energy, water, health, agriculture, engineering, R&D, education and training, ICT, mining and the financial sector. His work spans strategy, planning, governance, administration and implementation in government, industry and commerce, unions, communities, youth, academia, research and non-profit environments with extensive international experience.

He is passionate about people and sustainable development, driven by the belief in the restoration of Creation and every person to their original purpose and identity. His approach is systemic and integrated towards working with others to find solutions to the multidimensional challenges faced by the world.

Presentation: Development of a national EIP benchmark and certification mechanism

Prof Suzan Oelofse obtained a PhD in 1994 from the University of Johannesburg (then Rand Afrikaans University). After spending 10 years in government, she made a career change back to research joining the CSIR as a waste expert. She currently holds the position of Principal Researcher in the Sustainability, Economics and Waste Research Group, is an appointed Extra-ordinary Professor in the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management of the North-West University, South Africa, and a past President of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa (2013-2016). Her expertise includes the institutional and legal framework within which waste is managed in South Africa; waste information and data; reducing the environmental impacts of waste, circular economy, and sustainable consumption and production. With 26 years of relevant experience, she has a publication record including 18 peer reviewed Journal articles, 13 book chapters, 53 conference papers presented at international and local conferences, and more than 100 research and specialist reports.

Presentation: Resource-use and Circular Economy Transitioning for Eco-Industrial Plants

Henry Roman holds a PhD in Biotechnology from Rhodes University, South Africa, specialising in the bioremediation of acid mine drainage.  He has 17 years’ experience in the National System of Innovation in various roles with 11 of these at the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI).  Henry has led the development of two Roadmaps related to the Green Economy ambitions of South Africa, to guide research, development and innovation in the water and waste sectors. He is a member of the Advisory Panel for Sustainable Seas Trust, a Steering Committee Member of the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE-SA) as well as the Switch Africa Green Programme in South Africa. He is currently working on developing an STI Framework for Circular Economy.

Presentation: Circular Economy transforming Industrial Development

As part a part of the NCPC-SA management team, Lee-Hendor is responsible for business development, innovation and policy initiatives in RECP and SCP aimed at supporting the strategic objectives of the Centre.

He represents the NCPC-SA in various leadership roles on local and international platforms and initiatives. In this respect, he champions the Centre’s activities on eco-industrial parks, circular economy and eco-innovation initiatives and works closely with UNEP on Africa region policy mainstreaming and supporting SME’s.

Franziska is the Head of Swiss Economic Cooperation and Development (SECO) in South Africa, based at Embassy of Switzerland in Pretoria, responsible for developing and implementing the corresponding projects. SECO supports businesses and the government especially in their efforts to reduce disparities and unlock the economic potential.

Previously, she served as an Economist and Project Manager for the Swiss State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO) in Bern, Switzerland, where she was responsible for the Macroeconomic Support Division’s portfolio in Colombia and South Africa, including public financial management and financial sector stability projects.

Prior to this, she worked with KfW in the field of microfinance in Uganda, has held teaching and research roles at the University of Zurich, and worked as an Economist in the private sector (real estate analysis and financial sector).

Franziska holds a Master’s degree in Political Science, Economics and Social and Economic History from the University of Zurich as well as an Advanced Studies in Applied Statistics from the ETH Zurich.

Presentation – EIPs and the Just Transition for industry to a Circular Economy

Dr Karen Surridge was awarded her PhD in 2007 by the University of Pretoria and during 2007-2009 she was a postdoctoral Fellow of the Claude Leon Foundation. Her academic career was paralleled by establishing a consulting company specialising in environmental analyses, environmental impact assessments (EIA’s), laboratory setup and establishment and consulting to, among others, large energy, environmental consulting and metal industries in South Africa. It offered environmental compliance services in mega industries like steel, energy and mining with scarce expertise in soil amelioration for crude oil contaminated soils, for example and other highly specialised skills related to microbial aspects of environmental impact and restoration.

Because her skills varied between both the engineering and microbiology side of extractives as well as energy, Dr Surridge has been able to smoothly transition from the lab to the grid – leading and collaborating with different teams of pioneering researchers and engineers who test and pilot energy solutions that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; and South Africa’s energy security, efficiency and technological innovation needs. This includes projects to demonstrate sustainable technologies that are fit for purpose in South Africa. In collaboration with researchers and various international agencies, she has led to the successful piloting of sustainable energy and efficiency solutions to lower the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and support a Just Energy Transition.

Presentation – Energy and Eco-Industrial Parks in South Africa

Christian Susan is an Austrian national. He holds a MSC in Integrated Water Resource Management and a MSC in Environmental Economics. Christian joined UNIDO in 2008 and has since worked as the project manager on a wide array of environmental projects in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe as well as in Latin and Central America. Promoting public-private-partnerships for water stewardship, circular and sustainable industrial approaches, facilitating Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP), the Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies TEST) and supporting the transition towards Eco-Industrial are the main objective of the projects managed by Christian. In 2018 Christian has assumed management responsibility for the Swiss funded Global Eco-Industrial Park Program (GEIPP) as well as for the GEIPP country level interventions in Colombia, Indonesia, Peru and South Africa.

Presentation – Global Eco-Industrial Park – South Africa Country Level Intervention

Is the Chief Technical Adviser for the Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme (GEIPP) implemented by UNIDO. GEIPP is a 7-country program advancing the uptake of Eco-Industrial Parks practices and creating an EIP conducive policy environment.

Klaus served previously as division chief at UNIDO, policy advisory role at UNDP and the European Commission. Klaus started his career in manufacturing industry and has also served as consultant in more than 20 countries. Klaus has post-graduate degrees in Engineering, Environmental Policy and Business Administration from his native Finland, Belgium and UK, respectively.

Presentation: Eco-Industrial Park Tools

Dr. Dick van Beers is an International UNIDO Consultant, working on the knowledge component and the country level projects of the Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme (GEIPP). Dick is supporting the development, training and implementation of UNIDO’s EIP tools (https://hub.unido.org/eco-industrial-parks-tools). A key focus of Dick’s current work is to assist with the implementation of the GEIPP in South Africa, covering technical assistance, awareness raising and capacity building. Dick has 22 years of work experience on the planning, development and implementation of eco-industrial park approaches in more than 20 countries. He is passionate about working with industrial parks, companies, government agencies, and development organisations to improve their economic, environmental, societal performance and scale up their innovations.

Presentation – Eco-Industrial Park Tools

Presentation – Eco-Industrial Park Concept Planning Tool

Presentation – UNIDO EIP Tools – Access to Finance Tool

Presentation – Kwinana Industrial Area, Australia – World leading example in park management, community collaboration, and industrial synergies

Wynand van der Merwe is an internationally experienced Skills Development Professional with extensive experience in skills development systems for large organisations and government bodies. He serveds on the board of the SAEEC and is employed by the CSIR as the Skills Development Manager of the NCPC-SA.

Wynand joined the NCPC-SA team in 2013 as Skills Development Manager to establish a skills development department, responsible for developing and implementing various training interventions, an RECP internship programme, as well as facilitating the development of relevant national qualifications. Recent responsibilities include the development of a professional body for RECP practitioners

He previously served as Senior Manager: Sector Skills Planning at ISETT SETA (now MICT SETA), before relocating to the United Arab Emirates where he led a team of international experts in the implementation of a pilot project towards the establishment of a National Qualifications Authority and Qualifications Framework in that country. After returning to South Africa, he was contracted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in 2011 as a Training and Education expert to implement Skills Development solutions for the Industrial Energy Efficiency Project (IEE Project), co-implemented by UNIDO and the NCPC-SA.

Wynand holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honour’s Degree) in Communication Studies from the North-West University in Potchefstroom.

Presentation – Capacitating Industrial Parks to adopt Circular Economy Practices

John Ngoni Zvimba is currently with the South African Water Research Commission as Research Manager responsible for the sustainable integrated wastewater resources futures research portfolio. He holds a doctorate degree in Bio-Physical Chemistry and has postdoctoral research experience in Bioprocess Engineering. His research areas of interest include sustainable municipal, industrial and mining wastewater management, focussing on beneficiation and volarization. John has authored/co-authored over 30 peer reviewed publications/book chapters/patents and several technical reports and supervised/co-supervised several postgraduate students. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor for Great Zimbabwe University, a member of the WISA and IWA.

Presentation – The role of innovation in driving value of wastewater in industry