ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY 45
Sustainability – the future of every industry
By
Rory Macnamara
Much has and is being said about sustainability , and there seems to be several definitions and explanations . So , in doing our bit in trying to help save the world , Plumbing Africa thought it might be a good idea to look at the sustainability in our own plumbing backyard .
To this end we will be running a series of articles and interviews with our manufacturers / suppliers and plumbers to see how they are practising and supporting sustainability .
The best definition of sustainability I came across was : “ Avoidance of the depletion of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance .”
Because of the environmental and social problems societies around the world are facing , sustainability has been increasingly used in a specific way *. Nowadays , sustainability is usually defined as the processes and actions through which humankind avoids the depletion of natural resources , to keep an ecological balance that does not decrease the quality of life of modern societies .
In this way , the term ‘ sustainability ’ has been broadly applied to characterise improvements in areas like natural resources overexploitation , manufacturing operations ( its energy use and polluting by-products ), the linear consumption of products , the direction of investments , citizen lifestyle , consumer purchasing behaviours , technological developments or business and general institutional changes . As long as an action causes little , less , or no harm to the natural world – under the belief ( not always ensured ) that ecosystems will keep on operating and generating the conditions that maintain the quality of life of today ’ s modern societies – someone is often claimed to be sustainable .
Electrolux Plumbing Africa chatted with Murray Crow , recently appointed managing director of Electrolux , on the topic of sustainability .
Electrolux includes AEG , Kwikot and the Electrolux consumer appliance ranges .
Murray is confident that engineers and plumbers will benefit hugely by adopting more sustainable practices and indeed , use sustainability as a promotional tool to create awareness among their clients .
All images : Electrolux
Murray Crow
November 2021 Volume 27 I Number 9 www . plumbingafrica . co . za