RACA Journal January 2020 | Page 26

Events and Exhibitions Dan Plato, mayor of the Western Cape. Alan Wilde, premier of the Western Cape. Frans Hoorelbeke, chairman, member of the board of directors, Daikin Europe. 10-15%, yet the industry today is battling with this and forgetting about the 85% to come. By now, you might feel depressed or very negative for our future? Isn't it? Well actually, I’m not! Firstly, because I pray every night for a hot summer! Secondly, because I believe South Africa will become world Rugby champions in Japan! Thirdly, I believe we all should be positive as there is otherwise a risk of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy! And lastly, and perhaps the most important reason, because I also see a country with all the fundaments to be prosperous. A country with resources, infrastructure, a strong financial sector, endless possibilities for tourism, a rich population with diverse backgrounds and cultures and a government which gives positive signals for our future. Furthermore, the only 24 RACA Journal I January 2020 structural option of resolving some of the current South African challenges will be a development of the country as this will bring opportunities for the people struggling today, daily. Within this, I believe, there will be many opportunities for Daikin and thus for all of us. To explain why I have such strong belief, I’d like you all to imagine how South Africa will look in 2030. I see you are all looking very sceptical and of course we cannot predict the future, but there a few facts of which we can be relatively certain, and they will be no surprise to all of you: • There will be, for example, more people than there are today! The population has been growing year on year so why would this be different between now and 2030? Growing populations result in growing food needs, which translates into the needs of infrastructure and thus into business. • Next is that the economy will grow. It has been growing over the last 50 years (with some dips) and to structurally tackle the existing challenges, a growing economy will be required. This will result in new business opportunities but also it means an increasing need for electricity (which already a problem today). So, the South Africa of the future will bring opportunities, but it will also bring us challenges. One of those challenges is global warming. Actually, here in South Africa, we are confronted with this on a daily basis, look at the water shortage. Well, if want to address this, we will need to reduce our CO 2 emissions by half by 2050. At the same time, we just predicted that we will need more food and more energy demand in the South Africa of 2030. If you know that today, globally we waste ⅓ of our food and if food waste would be a country it would be the third biggest contributor of CO 2 emissions. If you know that today, electricity is still predominantly produced by fossil fuels and thus is responsible for a large portion of our CO 2 emissions. Well if you know that then basically, to address the future’s increasing needs in food and power, we cannot just produce more, instead we and our governments will have to work on preservation which means increasing efficiencies and increasing the standards in our industry. If I check today’s industry there is still a long way to go, but I’m confident that the current government in place, the end customers, the advisors and consultants and of course all of us as an industry, will move in the right direction. This will bring opportunities which perfectly fit the DNA of Daikin. For a start, our wide range of products covers almost all air-conditioning, refrigeration and heating needs. But above all, preservation equals efficiency and quality, and those values have always been the DNA of Daikin and knowing the challenges www.hvacronline.co.za