Sun City Recertification For Environmental Management System

“We are honoured to receive this international environmental management system certification which gives our stakeholders and customers’ confidence about how Sun City has embedded environmental sustainability practices within our operations as a responsible, future-focused organisation,” said Lwazi Mswelanto. “This benchmarks Sun City’s environmental management system and resource conservation against international organisations.”

The system audit assessment focused on four main areas: how the resort manages water and wastewater; initiatives and processes put in place to prevent, reduce, reuse, recycle and recover waste; what is being done to reduce carbon emissions and increase green energy capacity; mitigation of environmental risks and compliance to licenses and permits; and plans and processes put in place to mitigate environmental impact to the community in which the resort operates.

A R17,5-million solar plant was installed on the roof of Sun City’s Conference and entertainment centres last year to reduce reliance on the country’s electricity grid, and is expected to provide 2,59GWh per annum, an estimated four percent of the resort’s annual electricity needs, while reducing demand by an estimated 13%. This is despite new Lefika Villas coming on stream. The solar PV contribution so far equates to the displacement of 1,3 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in emissions.

Sun City is working on a further large-scale energy project to reduce reliance on the national grid, while adding about 20% to 30% in excess of its own electricity requirements. “Estimates suggests that close to 700kWp can be generated off the roofs of both the Sun City Hotel and The Palace of the Lost City.

“Sun City’s Convention Centre and our hotels receive an ever-increasing number of enquiries from groups and individuals wanting to know about our accreditation/certification on Environmental Sustainability and what measures we are putting in place to conserve the environment for the future,” Mswelanto said. “With a growing focus on ESG, conference organizers and companies in particular, are keen to know much water, waste and energy they have used for their conference so that they can determine how green their conference was.”

“The resort’s environmental sustainability system was commended by the Assessor during the Convention Centre grading process, in which it achieved a 5-star rating,” said Convention Centre Manager Nombuso Buthelezi.”

“Sun International is proud to be the only hospitality establishment in South Africa to carry an ISO 14001 certification, which is a boost for tourism investment in the area as this is an important USP when we are attracting group bookings, especially those from abroad,” said Sun City General Manager Brett Hoppé.