| Overview : The South African government through the Department of Energy in collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is implementing the appliance energy efficiency Standards and Labelling (S&L) Project. The project is designed with the objective of removing inefficient appliances from the South African market and to encourage the adoption of new minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) for energy efficient appliances. The project forms an integral part of the measures / interventions designed to reduce electricity consumption and the carbon footprint of the residential sector. A comprehensive marketing and communications campaign has been planned to introduce the project to the South African consumer and public. The communication channels will include print, television, billboards, radio and advocacy. In preparing for the official start of the project, the date from which compliance is mandatory, the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) embarked on a nationwide market surveillance, sampling and enforcement project which visited appliance retail stores in all the major cities of South Africa. The results indicate a very low level of compliance by the retailers (in other words the majority of appliances either do not have the required energy efficiency label or have the wrong label). Furthermore, retail staff had little to no knowledge about the project. This situation will undoubtedly work against the objectives of the overall project and certainly compromise the effectiveness of a communications campaign, whose aim is to provide very specific information to consumers, who will then find a different reality at the retail stores. The purpose of this assignment is to mitigate this situation. Training content has already been developed and the successful vendor will be required to use this material as there is insufficient time for new content to be scripted. However, where and if necessary, improvements and additions must be incorporated. |
