Ithemba student receives environmental Hirsch’s Award
Recently Focus on Ithemba held their annual prize giving. On entering the hall there was a huge buzz of excitement Parents chatting, children laughing and teachers awaiting the start of a very exciting event. Hirsch’s in Hillcrest sponsored the Environmental Awareness trophy which resembles an adult Rhino with her calf beside her. The trophy was won by non-other than Yandisa Khuphimpi. Yandisa has excelled in her environmental awareness, using her knowledge to teach the other children around her.
At Hirsch’s we consider ourselves a green company and have undertaken to have all the lighting in our stores converted to energy efficient lighting. We have stopped using plastic packets for customer goods and we are actively promoting energy efficient products to our customers. For instance, those that use less water and less electricity, fridges with R600 gas which is environmentally friendly. We have regular information sessions with customers advising them on the advantages of energy efficiency.
In some of our stores we have recycle bins where the consumer can bring in their recyclable material which we split into the various sections and then have these collected by outside sources.
We are waging a war with suppliers in the way they package their goods because the majority of them, although they sell energy efficient products with low water and electricity use, are using polystyrene and plastic for their packaging. I can’t understand this as they are not walking their talk.
With regards to cooking products, we have done numerous demonstrations with induction hobs and gas hobs and how they save energy. We have explained to customers the different types of usage they get out of the various plates and we are actively encouraging our staff to go greener and advising customer to do the same.
We at Hirsch’s also strongly believe in giving back to the communities and environment that we operate in.