Cape Town: City-funded WISP a win for businesses. Over 60 local businesses participated in the 15th Western Cape Industrial Symbiosis Programme (WISP) Business Opportunity Workshop, which was hosted by the City’s Special Purpose Vehicle, GreenCape.
WISP is an interactive workshop that aims to help businesses, to develop mutually profitable links wherein under-utilised or waste resources from one company can be recovered, reprocessed and reused by others.
Considering this, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Economic Growth – Alderman James Vos stated opened the event and saluted the businesses for participating.
Vos said that the City of Cape Town currently manages about 2.1 million tonnes of waste annually and every day. A significant portion is successfully diverted from landfill through various waste minimisation initiatives.
He added that WISP is a solution that allows participating businesses to cut costs, improve processes, create new revenue streams and job opportunities. This all positively impacts the environment through the re-purposing of waste.
Notably, the programme is a free facilitation service that connects manufacturers in Cape Town with the officials.
GreenCape’s team of WISP facilitators provides members with dedicated time and technical expertise to identify and realise mutually beneficial business exchanges. Since its inception in 2013, the programme has facilitated 237 synergies. This collectively resulted in diverting 146,000 tonnes of waste from landfill and saved 435,000 in fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions, that is equivalent to the electrical usage of 117,840 households in South Africa.
Alderman James Vos also stated that these synergies have generated over R155 million in financial benefits and created 411 jobs across the economy. Cutting waste creates work, designing for reuse builds revenue, and clean innovation will future-proof Cape Town’s economy. A more sustainable Cape Town is dependent on programmes such as WISP and he is looking forward to see it expand for the benefit of all in Cape Town.