This year’s 11th Energy Management Awards (EMA) Gala Night dubbed A Night with the Energy Royals, took place on March 27th at Safari Park Hotel. While the event was filled with many wonderful moments, the event’s highlight was when Mzuri Sweets, a company that also won best new entrant of the EMA. They crowned the night by winning the overall EMA award.
The event was a success with many energy gurus in attendance, wonderful entertainment and delicious food. Various companies including, the prime platinum sponsor; Kenya Power and others like Safaricom, Ketraco and Bamburi Cement sponsored the EMA. Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) manages EMA among other organizations; it aims at creating awareness about energy efficiency as well as recognizing the best practices in energy efficiency.
The aim of introducing energy efficiency schemes in a company or organization is to reduce energy consumption without compromising on productivity or increasing cost. At a national level, adoption of energy efficiency and conservation can significantly reduce fuel costs and foreign exchange costs of oil imports. Thus, regulators across the world are increasingly initiating rigorous standards of energy efficiency. Thus in the spirit of promoting a culture of energy efficiency and conservation, the EMA are geared at recognizing enterprises that have taken major strides in implementing energy efficiency measures through the installation of modern energy management principles and practices.
“There has been great progress in energy efficiency and management in our country and we are happy to report that to date the centre of energy efficiency and conservation which is hosted at KAM and supported by the Kenyan government through the ministry of energy has undertaken subsidized energy audits in more than 350 establishments. We have planned out specialized energy efficiency and renewable energy training and so far through this work the CEC has trained more than 500 personnel and now we have 120 certified energy managers,” remarked KAM chief executive Ms. Betty Maina.
To win the overall Energy Management Award, an organization must have outstanding energy management initiatives for efficient energy use. In addition, the award takes into account, energy management training done at the organization, the effectiveness of the energy team and the overall impact of energy efficiency schemes on the organization’s cost and savings. Mzuri Sweets that won this year’s overall EMA award has implemented most of these measures and has installed modern energy management infrastructures in their organization.
Besides bagging the 2015 Energy Management Award, Mzuri Sweets also received the following Awards:
Fuel saving energy category (Large)- Runner-up
Best New Entrant (Large) –Winners
Mzuri Sweets was established in 1993 and is situated in Mombasa Kenya. It aims to produce delicious and unique bubblegum and candy. Throughout the years, it has built popular brands including Mr. Berry, Ice Cool, Bubbla Cola, Fun Orange and Lucky Boy.
Another organization that received several awards was Sarova Hotels; it received:
Energy Savings Award (Medium): Winner (Sarova Shaba)
Service Sector Award: Winner (Sarova PanAfric)
Best Energy Management Team: Winner (Sarova White Sands)
In addition, this year a student category was introduced to encourage innovation and creativity among university institutions. The winners were Obiero Churchil from Moi University (undergraduate) and Isaac Kiunga from Kenyatta University (Masters).
” We need to leave the world better than we found it and have better discussions on sustainability of the resources we have in terms of green energy for socioeconomic development,” said KAM chairman Mr. Pradeep Paunrana.
