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GREENEST MUNICIPALITY COMPETITION BOOKLET

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WHAT IS THE GREENEST MUNICIPALITY COMPETITION?

The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa has created Department of Environmental Affairs and mandated it with the responsibility to manage and protect the environment. The Constitution of the Republic further confers the right to every citizen to live in a healthy environment which is free from harmful effects.

The Department of Environmental Affairs is fulfilling this mandate by introducing a wide range of programmes which will not only ensure compliance, but ensure a paradigm shift from traditional to a sustainable Green Economy.

The Green economy is an economy that results in reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without degrading the environment. It is closely related with ecological economics, but has a more politically applied focus

To achieve this, the Department of Environmental Affairs has introduced and runs the Greenest Municipality Competition (The GMC) which encourages municipalities as the coal face of service delivery to adopt green practices which ensure a seamless transition to Green Economy.

The GMC, which was previously known as the Cleanest Town Competition (CTC), primarily focuses on the implementation of the National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) and the Climate Change Response Policy. This included principles of reducing, reusing and recycling waste materials and introduction of renewable energy initiatives.

THE RATIONALE FOR THE GMC

The GMC needs to address environmental protection, social upliftment and economic growth. This also forms part of the recommendations of the 2006/2007 CTC report. This is a move from a predominantly environmental focus to sustainable development focus. This aspect is portrayed in Figure 1- Sustainable Development Dimensions of GMC.

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Figure 1 Sustainable development dimensions of GMC

In the main, the criteria for the GMC incorporate elements such as water management, energy efficiency, tree planting, landscaping, beautification, public participation and institutional arrangement and leadership in the municipality. This was done to address environmental protection, social upliftment and economic growth. The GMC is conducted through a highly competent panel of persons with extensive knowledge of environmental issues and it is a combination which consists of officials from the Environmental Affairs, Provincial departments and from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to ensure a credible, legitimate and fair adjudication process.

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THE GMC USES THE FOLLOWING SEVEN KEY ELEMENTS LISTED BELOW AS CRITERIA FOR SELECTION:

1. Waste Management

Waste management is a process of sorting, collecting, transporting, processing, reusing, recycling or disposal of waste materials. The waste management category needs to be dealt with in terms of the waste hierarchy as outlined in the figure below. Waste management strategies and interventions need to take this into account, and environmental awareness is critical in ensuring that the top tier is considered and exhausted before using strategies constituting the bottom tier.

The main aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical, benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste. If the only rema i n i n g option is disposal (least favoured option), then the municipalities need to demonstrate that they are disposing off in a permitted transfer station or landfill site. Illegal disposal of waste needs to be prevented.

2. EnergyEfficiencyandConservation

Energy efficiency refers to products or systems designed to use less en-ergy for the same or higher performance than regular products or sys-tems saving energy through efficiency also saves money on electricity bills and protects the environment by reducing fossil fuel consumption and emissions. In South Africa, energy efficiency is becoming mandatory due to the dire need to conserve electricity. This will result in increasing demands for energy savings, which have thus far been achieved through retrofitting, avoiding unnecessary use and responsible use.

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3 Water Management

Water management is the practice of planning, developing, distributing and optimum utilisation of water resources under defined water policies and regulations. Water conservation refers to reducing use of fresh water, through technological or social methods. The goals of water conservation efforts include:

Sustainability- To ensure availability for future generations, the withdrawal of fresh water from an ecosystem should not exceed its natural replacement rate. The former Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s slogan: some for all forever defines sustainability of water allocation and use, and needs to be translated into local context and practices.

Energy conservation - Water pumping, delivery, and wastewater treatment facilities consume a significant amount of energy. In some countries, as much as 10% of total electricity consumption is devoted to water management.

Habitat conservation - Minimising human water use helps to preserve fresh water habitats for local wildlife and migrating water birds, as well as reducing the need to build new dams and other water diversion infrastructures.

4. Landscaping,treeplantingand

beautification

These are key components of current municipal functions and activities that contribute or have potential to contribute to carbon off-setting. These are already key components of the greening the nation initiative and should be enhanced to create opportunities for carbon offsetting.

These should be driven by municipalities and implemented by both municipalities and communities or community organisations.

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Municipalities can have landfill sites, an authorised area where waste can be dispersed.

This promotes waste management.

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5. PublicParticipationandCommunity

Empowerment

Public participation and community empowerment are critical components in ensuring sustainability and ownership of the Greenest Municipality Programme. Public participation is a process of actively involving and engaging the general public in development and decision making regarding issues that affect or may affect them.

In South Africa, public participation is a legal requirement on developments, and forms part of the NEMA principles that all organs of state need to observe and it is also a Constitution imperative.

6. LeadershipandInstitutionalArrangements

Leadership and institutional arrangements are essential elements in any successful greening initiative. These could be demonstrated in a number of ways such as:

• Policy Statements (Vision and Mission), Strategies, Plans

• Appointment of relevant champions

• Allocation of budget for GMC activities

• Baseline and Reduction or Improvement Targets

• Monitoring and Evaluation arrangements

• Education and Awareness campaigns (overall)

7. Presentation

This criterion looks at how the various municipalities present everything pertaining to the above mentioned criteria to the GMC panellists, in terms of the projects they have initiated and are on-going in their respective municipalities. The panellists score municipalities according to inclusivity, preparedness, relevancy, co-operative governance, whether the language used is appropriate for the intended audience and whether the municipality covered the scope of the elements required in the GMC criteria.

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8. CriteriaUsedByPanelMembers

The panel members are guided by a selection of criterion comprising of particular points

Theme Points

• Waste Management 63

• Energy Efficiency and Conservation 28

• Water Management 34

• Landscaping, tree planting and beautification 20

• Public Participating and Community Empowerment, and schools 25

• Leadership and Institutional Arrangements 15

• Presentation 5

Total 190

This new criteria sees a move from a predominantly environmental focus to one with sustainable development goals in mind. The GMC focuses also on efforts to get municipalities to become central role players in the green economy.

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Community members can be involved in the “Collect a Can” which falls under the Waste Management criterion.

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Below is a copy of a score sheet that is used by panellists to conduct assessments and rate municipalities:

Selectioncriteriascoresheet:

GreenestMunicipalityCompetition

NameofMunicipality:

• Waste Management = 63 = 33,2%

• Energy Efficiency and Conservation; = 28 = 14%

• Water Management; = 34 = 17%

• Landscaping, tree planting and beautification; = 20 = 10,5

• Public Participation and Community Empowerment; Schools = 25 = 13,2%

• Leadership and Institutional Arrangements; = 15 = 7,9%

• Presentation = 5 = 2

TOTAL = 190

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This is a Buyback Centre where communities bring paper for money.

Paper is then recycled, this is called a good practice.

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Some of the municipal landfill sites in the previously evaluated councils.

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GMC PANEL COMPOSITION

A panel of evaluators is constituted at a provincial level by the provincial steering committee of people mandated by the heads of department. It is constituted on a multi-stakeholder basis and comprises of representatives from government organisations and Non-governmental organisations. Critically, the panel has valuable expertise, insight and sensitivity of environmental, social and economic issues.

The steering committee undertakes site visits to all local and metropolitan councils that had entered the competition and winners are recommended to the heads of department. The MECs for environmental affairs makes all announcements and handing over of prizes. All provincial winners are then submitted to DEA for evaluation in order

to select national winners and runner-up.

EPIP Implementation Model

1. The municipality will decide on the project concept that has to fall within waste management, greening or any environmental management concept;

2. The project has to be labour intensive, offer skills development and support the use of local SMMEs in line with the EPWP principles;

3. The department will appoint a suitable implementing agent to implement the project on behalf of the municipality;

4. A minimum of 35% of the project budget should be utilised for labour (SPWP);

5. A maximum of 2% of the project budget should be ulitised for non-accredited training;

6. A maximum of 15% of project budget shall be utilised for Project Management Fees

7. 90% of employed people should be local;

8. 55 % of employed people should be youth (18-35 years);

9. 55% of employed people should be women;

10. 2 % of jobs should be reserved for people with disabilities;

11. Training person days must be equal to 10% of temporary

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THE SPECIFICATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING GMC PROJECTS

The department awards prizes according to the two categories namely; metro category and the local municipality category. The value of the awards is the same for both categories:

• 1st prize- R3, 500,000.00 (Three million and five hundred thousand rand)• 2nd prize- R3,000,000.00 (Three million rand)• 3rd prize- R2,500,000.00 (Two million and five hundred thousand rand)

The redeemption of the awards by the municipalities is done through an EPWP project that will be funded within the EPIP programe. The department will appoint a project implementer from the internal database of registered project implementers. The departmnet will enter into an agreemnet with the nominated implementing agent to execute the project. The project will entail a detailed planning phase within certain paramenters that wil be contained in the agreement. A project business plan will be developed and approved by the department that will outline the project deliverables and all the processes to be followed during implementation. The following is the minimum criteria to be followed when implementing the Greenest Munipalities Competition project:

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE?

Participation is open to all South African municipalities. There are two categories in the GMC, the metropolitan municipality and the local municipality awards. Both categories have second, first runner up and the overall winner positions available.

Municipalities from all nine Provinces enter GMC competition via provincial Department of Environment. The Department and Provincial Departments officials formed a National Steering committee which meets every quarter. The work of the steering committee among others is to oversee all GMC activities which include the

evaluation schedule, Awards ceremony and review of the GMC evaluation criteria.

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE

NationalContactDetails

1. Kgomotso Mokgoko Department of Environmental Affairs kmokgoko@environment.gov.za 012 310 3725 083 519 7516

2. Mapato Baloyi Department of Environmental Affairs mbaloyi@environment.gov.za 012 310 3363 082 341 7090

3. Mandla Shabangu Department of Environmental Affairs mshabangu@environment.gov.za 012 395 1683 073 309 0204

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ProvincialContacts

1. Shadrack Khosa Department of Agriculture and Rural Development- Gauteng shadrack.khosa@gauteng.gov.za 084 906 5294

2. Mlungiseleli Binda Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs – Kwa Zulu Natal Mlu.binda@dae.kzntl.gov.za 033 355 9433 082 330 2081

3. Mziyanda Mkosana Department of Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism-Eastern Cape Mziyanda.mkosana@deaet.ecape.gov.za 043 605 7141 071 865 3922

4. Manoko MA Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism-Limpopo manokoma@ledet.gov.za 082 801 2795

5. Khuthala Swanepool Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning khuthala.swanepool@pgwc.gov.za 021 483 2610

6 Ms Zithobile Hlaka Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism-Mpumalanga zhlaka@mpg.gov.za 013 766 4830 083 761 5376

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Department of Environmental Affairs

Call centre: 086 111 2468Website: www.enironment.gov.za