Leading Cape Town-based power events organiser and publisher Spintelligent has become the 55th company to sign the 49m pledge, agreeing to embrace energy savings as part of the company's culture and joining the global journey towards a sustainable future.

Spintelligent is the organiser of record- and ground-breaking energy industry forums such as African Utility Week, Hydropower Africa, the East African Power Industry Convention (EAPIC) and the West African Power Industry Convention (WAPIC). The company also produces the leading trade publications and portals: Metering International, ESI Africa and Mining Review Africa.

Says Spintelligent's Directory Strategy and Content, Claire Volkwyn: "we are very proud of our 15-year longstanding relationship with our national utility Eskom. As the producers of power events across the African continent, we should also be doing our part towards ensuring we are 'walking the talk'. We are pleased to be supporting Eskom in this initiative and to encourage energy efficiency through our publications and events."

The pledge was signed at the Spintelligent offices in Westlake in Cape Town by Eskom's Senior Manager: Strategic Marketing, Mr Pieter Pretorius, and Spintelligent's Managing Director, Philip Vander Gucht.

Mr Pretorius said the 49m campaign was conceived to address the urgent need to reduce electricity consumption across all sectors of South Africa. "We must each do our bit", he said, "such as changing light bulbs to energy efficient ones and switching computers off at the plug." He added that so far 43-million bulbs in South Africa had been replaced by energy efficient ones, the largest project of its kind in the world and that "the energy saved by changing the 43-millions old bulbs exceeded that of Koeberg."

Spintelligent's Managing Director, Philip Vander Gucht said the company was serious about implementing more energy efficient ways in the day-to-day running of the office. "We are going to do this as a company, such as installing a geyser blanket and changing all the bulbs."
The 49m campaign was launched in March 2011 and encourages South Africans to start thinking about their power consumption and saving 10% of their electricity usage.