Eco-Build Award

th e Eco-Build Award

BOXA LOO

BOXA is a ‘green-tech’ building company that develops holistic rapid-build solutions to address critical developmental and environmental challenges in African markets. BOXA integrates ‘next generation’ green building and off-grid technologies to provide high-performance solutions for essential infrastructure such as toilets, schools and homes, particularly in un-serviced, remote or environmentally sensitive locations. In December 2019, BOXA built a 100% off-grid toilet block at Victoria Yards in 5 days with zero cement, zero water and zero waste. The building has a fraction of the environmental footprint of traditional brick & mortar, in a fraction of the time and at a comparable cost once production of the materials is scaled. The BOXA Loo is a high-performance toilet block with zero utility connections and zero environmental footprint. Water for handwashing and cleaning is harvested from the roof and stored under the floor, all electricity needs are powered by the sun. The Enviro-Loo toilets require zero chemicals or water and reduce faecal matter to 5% of its original volume in the form of pathogen-free organic compost.

DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE: PLASTIC ROAD IN JEFFREY’S BAY

Together with Kouga Municipality, MacRebur and SP Excel we embarked on a project to construct Africa’s and South Africa’s first ever road made from waste plastic using a product that was tested and guaranteed not to break down any further into micro-plastics. This project uses 1.5 tons of plastic per kilometer or 1.8 million plastic bags per kilometer. This was a pilot project in Jeffrey’s Bay in the Kouga Municipality that was aimed to create a demand for waste plastic to be used in road construction in the entire continent. The long-term vision is to create such a demand for using waste plastic as part of the bitumen mix that we can open a factory to turn the plastic into pellets for use in South Africa and export to sub-Saharan Africa. The objective is to address the triple threat of pollution, unemployment and crumbling Infrastructure in South Africa. This includes the reduction of plastic pollution (especially marine pollution), creating jobs for people collecting the plastic to be used in the roads and addressing the road maintenance backlog in South Africa.

USE-IT: HAMMARSDALE WASTE BENEFICIATION CENTRE

USE-IT wanted this to be different to anything else on the African continent, so set about defining the project scope and development. A Feasibility Study was completed which determined that the Hammarsdale Waste Beneficiation Centre was a feasible project from an environmental, social, economic (47% unemployment) and financial perspective. We therefore built a “Green Hub” that will promote job creation by participating in the production of green products from recycled and locally available material for larger scale contracts, while at the same time providing participants with useful skills development, training and incubation for own future business ventures. It will also stimulate economic activity in the area from the collection of recyclable waste and empower people to live their life with dignity and respect. Because of the community focus, we built this Centre in the middle of the community, far from the adjacent industrial areas.

Water Wise - going strong since 1997

2 0 Y E A R S

A N D C O U N T I N G

E V E R Y D R O P I S L I F E , S A V E Y O U R S

Water Wise has been going for more than 20 years, offering education and information on water conservation in the home and garden. There are many simple and effective ways to reduce the amount of water you use in the garden and home. Hydro-zoning your garden, using mulch, installing a raintank, using permeable paving, and irrigating at the right time of the day are all easy ways to use less water in your garden or landscape.