KFA 1: Resource Conservation

Resource conservation is aimed at facilitating integrated action with regard to the conservation and utilisation of natural resources. It seeks to establish an awareness of the physical limits of resource use on future development, minimise the impacts of resource use on the environment and enhance people’s quality of life.

On the basis of availability, natural resources can be categorised as follows:

• Renewable resources can be replenished or reproduced easily. Some of them, like sunlight, air, wind, etc., are readily available and their quantity is not affected by human consumption. Many renewable resources can be depleted by human use but may also be replenished, thus maintaining a flow of supply. Some of these, like agricultural crops, take a short time for renewal; others, like water, take a comparatively longer time, while still others, like forests, take even longer.
• Non-renewable resources are formed over very long geological periods. Minerals and fossil fuels are included in this category. Since their rate of formation is extremely slow, they cannot be replenished once they get depleted. While metallic minerals can be re-used through recycling, coal and petroleum cannot be recycled.

In setting environmental targets for this KFA, AECI has focused on Water Conservation and Water Demand Management, Waste Management and Conservation activities.

WATER

INTERVENTION: Develop a Water Conservation and Water Demand Management (WC/WDM) Plan.
TARGET: A WC/WDM strategy will be developed for the AECI Group with specific applications to each BU by end-2012.

WASTE

INTERVENTION: Compile a waste inventory for each Group business.
TARGET: Compile a site-specific inventory for liquid, solid and gaseous wastes at each Group business by mid-2012.

CONSERVATION

INTERVENTION: Promote ecosystem conservation activities.
TARGET: Identify and develop areas which can serve as ecological reserves by mid-2012.