Yakety Jack

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A blog on the World Cup and Enigin is actually rather suited as the South African World Cup had a carbon footprint six times larger than that of the German World Cup four years ago.

With Enigin’s energy saving schemes, the South African World Cup could have benefited from a few carbon cutting measures here and then.

Due to the amount of stadiums that the country had to build, a lot of construction was carbon-intensive, with a ton of carbon being released for every ton of cement made.

Also, despite the odd wind turbine being put on the occasional stadium, South Africa is still a coal-heavy country.

However, in terms of energy efficiency, Enigin would have been proud of South Africa for some of the innovation it showed during the tournament. In a bid to cut emissions from cars and public transportation systems, South Africa constructed the Gautrain, a high-speed rail network that will transport fans around the country.

There were also projects to reduce fossil fuel consumption such as a US$10 million scheme to install solar panels and efficient lights on the streets, stoplights and billboards of the six host cities.

There were also a number of carbon offset programs such as urban tree planting in cities like Johannesburg, Rustenberg and Ethekwini, but this is the problem with such a massive tournament. With fans jetting it from around the world, and the rest of the planet switching on their TVs, energy saving and football are always going to have a strenuous relationship.

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