material or 0.0066 tons of recyclable packaging per ton of sugar produced (2014: 0.0047 tons of
recyclable packaging ton sugar produced) of packaging material was used during the 2014/15 season,
representing a 40.4% increase in packaging per ton of sugar produced. This increase is attributed to a
new packing plant operating in Eston, which has shifted packaging from bulk supply to consumer
volumes, and also includes increased sugar packed at Nakambala, Kilombero, Noodsberg and
Umzimkulu.
Energy efficiency remains important to Illovo, given the growing demand for and increasing cost of
energy and the corresponding impact on the environment, together with that of the risk of power outages
from national grids. We are also aligning our business to play an increasingly significant role in global
GHG mitigation and are working to decrease our consumption of non-renewable energy and increase
our generation of renewable energy in the form of electricity. In the short term, we are focused on
improving the energy efficiency of our production processes. This includes employing better
management systems, improving our staff awareness and investing in new technologies.
During the year under review, our Ubombo mill in Swaziland, with its integrated co-generation facility,
exported a total of 47.8 GWh of generated electricity
to the Swaziland national grid, an increase from
44.8 GWh exported during the previous season.
The most substantial business decisions, which are directly influenced by climate change considerations,
include driving research and development initiatives in co-generation, investigating the renewable energy
market, increasing the resilience of our operations to the changing climate and increasing our use of
renewable energy.
Our operations continue to explore increased use of renewable energy where possible, thereby reducing
their dependency on fossil fuels. Approval has been granted for an energy efficiency project at the
Sezela site in South Africa, which will have the impact of reducing the site’s reliance on coal by 12 000
tons per annum and will also reduce the site’s electrical demand from the national Eskom grid by
21 GWh (approximately 75% reduction in the total demand of electricity imported during the season).
The project is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2016/17 crushing season.
The Zambia refinery expansion, which is expected to be commissioned in 2016/17, has similarly been
accompanied by numerous energy efficiency initiatives and the expanded factory is forecast to continue
to meet its own energy requirements without the need for supplementary fuel (eg, coal or woodchips).
Our energy strategy is generally site-dependent and for sites where we burn supplementary fuel (ie,
fuels other than bagasse), our ultimate energy reduction target is to eliminate the use of supplementary
fuel altogether. Reducing energy consumption beyond this point would result in excess bagasse residue
