Sustainability is an ongoing journey, and one that we have embraced. Our most recent greening project is the installation in our Cape Town branch of a plant nursery which exclusively stocks water-wise, non-invasive plants.
One of the company’s exhibition designers, Jacob van Zyl, drove the implementation process. He says, “The idea behind this is to promote the use of water-wise plants in our exhibition stand and display designs, and we can be inspired by the plants we have on-hand. This set-up also means we are able to offer our clients a lower rate to hire these plants, which makes them more accessible.”
Jacob designed the structure that shelters the nursery, which is made from repurposed gum poles and wooden pallets.
Given Cape Town’s current water shortages, a well-thought-out system has been put in place to keep the plants watered. “The City of Cape Town’s water restriction rules clearly state that no municipal water be used to water plants. Therefore, we have installed an overhead irrigation system that relies exclusively on our grey-water system,” explains Jacob.
In 2017, our Cape Town branch set up a rainwater harvesting system which has helped it to become increasingly self-sufficient for its water needs. A reverse osmosis purification system cleans the collected rainwater and creates some grey water waste in the process. This is then used for the nursery.
The team is also conscious of the importance of re-use as a greening philosophy, so the plants are grown, maintained and used in such a manner as to promote their longevity and minimise waste.