The National Business Initiative (NBI) was awarded £8.6 million from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to implement a countrywide programme of support to the private sector in Energy Efficiency improvement.

The NBI has a proud track record of advancing environmental sustainability in the private sector over the past 7 years especially through its focus on Climate, Energy and Water. This effort has contributed to South African companies taking significant steps, especially in a developing economy context, to participating in voluntary individual and collective actions to improve energy efficiency and to reduce carbon emission. The Private Sector Energy Efficiency programme will build on the NBI’s existing platform of engagement between companies and government through the Energy Efficiency Leadership Network which was launched at COP 17.

The programme seeks to tackle the following barriers:

– Lack of awareness of energy efficiency;
– Lack of capability within industry to identify opportunities for energy efficiency;
– Lack of capacity within companies to access available finance, and develop a business case for energy efficiency programs that would get board level support.

The NBI will be working with the technical support of the UK’s Carbon Trust who has over 10 years of experience in rolling out a similar project in the UK.

For more information on the NBI, please visit www.nbi.org.za