Ackermans participated in the BBC radio debate about the future of Africa's energy supply. The debate explored tough decisions and competing priorities faced by Africa's leaders ahead of the UN climate negotiations in December 2015.
On the panel was Caroline Kande Robbe, executive director of Power People Planet, Edith Nawakwi, former MMD Minister of Zambia, Mamadou Toure, Cameroon, founder and chairman of Africa 2.0 and GE and Muna Lakhani the Cape Town coordinator of Earthlife Africa, one of the oldest environmental justice organisations on the continent.
The African Progress Panel's report argues that: "No region has more abundant or less utilised renewable energy potential. Decentralised power generation and distribution systems are opening up new possibilities for reaching populations currently bypassed by national grids."
Last month Ackermans was awarded the African Utility Award for the energy and water efficiency project of the year for SWATT ("Save Watts") - an extensive energy saving initiative conceptualised by the retailer, and developed and implemented by UGU Engineering Solutions.
Speaking at the event on Friday afternoon, 5 June, Jonathan Pratt, GM for Operations Support at Ackermans, addressed the panel of experts saying that, "For us as a company and business in general, it's very important to be part of the energy crisis solution. We can play a big part with government and the public in general. With Eskom, we've saved a lot of energy. We've actually put enough energy back in the grid to power about 1200 households for a year. We've beaten our competitors and it's a challenge to other retailers out there to save electricity. We are in the process of looking at other ways of dealing with the energy crisis and how we can work with other role players going forward to continue to be energy efficient in our business."
