The City of Cape Town’s My Clean Green Home in Green Point Urban Park is open again to visitors in honour of Earth Day. The exhibit gives visitors an opportunity to walk through a full size model of a net zero carbon home and experience what life could be like to live in such a home. This year’s Earth Day theme is ‘Invest in Our Planet’ and is in line with the City’s climate change response and resilience campaign, Let’s ACT. For a Stronger Cape Town. It is the ultimate investment in our planet, and our future. Capetonians are encouraged to invest their time, visit the exhibit and learn how they can take action in their homes.
The compact home is the epitome of the City’s vision for its energy future. It gives visitors tangible ideas of how they can act in their homes to make Cape Town stronger and more resilient to climate change. A net zero carbon building is highly energy efficient, and fully powered from on or off-site renewable energy sources.
‘It is an honour to have declared this future-fit home open for the season, especially as we celebrate Earth Day today. This special home contains ideas and a vision that we could all benefit from. It shows that even small actions can make a difference, irrespective of our walks of life. As part of the City’s climate change action, we are aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050 and the City has committed that all new buildings in Cape Town will be net zero carbon by 2030. While net zero carbon homes seem as if they would be challenging to create, this shows that the technologies and building techniques already exist and are becoming increasingly within reach of the average household.
‘With no and low-investment options, all residents can act to make changes within their homes. All households can take small actions to increase their energy, water and waste efficiency. This is an exciting opportunity for our residents to see for themselves what is required to tackle our climate challenges and opportunities. It is one thing to hear and read about climate change and another to be able to walk around inside a net zero carbon home. This shows that it is already possible and that households can take even small actions to increase their energy, water and waste efficiency among others,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.
A number of activities will be taking place at the house over the next few weeks. These include:
• Smart City Kids Programme with Early Childhood Development centres from Langa learning about sustainable living and resource efficiency on 26, 28 and 29 April
• Arts and crafts activities and scavenger hunts on the weekends and public holidays
• Visitors can place clean plastic waste into a sculpture as part of an Earth Day pledge
• Virtual walk through tool – a first for a South African city
The My Clean Green Home virtual walk through provides residents with the opportunity to learn about sustainable living and better understand their electricity consumption especially. This interactive, immersive educational tool which allows the user to experience a net zero carbon home is a first for a South African city and provides a wealth of information which users can use in their own homes.
Residents can experience this innovative house using this link: https://www.capetownfutureenergyfestival.co.za/mycleangreenhome
The exhibit is open to the public from 10:00 to 16:00 until 2 May 2022 at Green Point Urban Park. Strict access control and Covid-19 protocols will be in place to ensure the safety of all visitors and staff. As required by law, all participants are requested to wear a mask at all times.
Source: City Of Cape Town