General News

Virgin Active in saving race - 29 February 2008

Whilst so many companies are still talking about power saving, Cape Town-headquartered Virgin Active have had some good initiatives up and running for the past few years, and are continually coming up with new concepts, says Elaine Jobson, newly appointed National Operations Manager for Virgin Active.

“As early as 2001 we recognised that as a group we had to start doing our bit to conserve power to get the ball rolling, we implemented a Heat Recovery System, an ingenious machine which uses the excess energy from our air conditioning units and heats all the water in our pools and showers. With this system in place, we are saving approximately 960 000KWh per year – which is enough energy to keep a world class football stadium fully lit for 3 months!” continues Jobson.

“We have actively implemented an energy saving campaign throughout all our 84 clubs nationally, these initiatives are simple yet effective and is a joint effort by our entire staff compliment of over 3 500 employees and our members, whom we encourage to come up with ideas on an ongoing basis. We see our current energy crisis as an opportunity for corporates and the general public to tackle together. Virgin Active would like to invite fellow corporates to join the movement and challenge Virgin Active with their own power saving ideas.”

“Our campaign is designed in a fun, vibrant and simple way – it’s all about joining the energy movement and really getting tangible results. This movement also falls in line with our international strategy to improve our global green issues,” concludes Jobson.

Virgin Active is currently working on a number of other projects, which will further reduce its energy requirements.

Source: Cape Business News