Bosch and Siemens Hausgeräte's Middle East CEO today urged authorities in the region to follow Australia's lead in order to reduce its carbon footprint and water consumption.
After a severe drought in 2005, the Australian authorities introduced a tough Star Rating to create an incentive for Australians and ultimately domestic appliances manufacturers to reduce water and electricity consumption.
With a maximum efficiency rating of six, financial incentives are offered from the Australian authorities with every newly purchased appliance with at least four stars. This can be as high as a Dh 600 refund with each environmentally aware purchase.
As with the Middle East region, Australia is historically a toploader market, which consumes far more water than frontloading alternatives. Within two years of Australia implementing the scheme its frontloader market grew to a 50 per cent share of the market, and it continues to grow.
Heiko Fischer, BSH's CEO for the Middle East said: "Australia really has been proactive on this and I would love to see authorities here making similarly bold moves.
"Quite apart from the fact that too much energy per capita is consumed in this part of the world, there is always the threat here in the desert of a water shortage.
"As one of the world's top three manufacturers of home appliances we see this as our global responsibility to play a significant role in climate protection and responsible globalisation.
"By encouraging consumers to buy the more efficient alternatives, the respective authorities can really make a difference. For example, our dishwashers and frontloading washing machines help reduce water consumption by 60 per cent with better cleaning results, but most consumers are focusing on buying cheaper alternatives to save in the short run.
"In fact, buying a cheap appliance, such as a washing machine or refrigerator, can be a false economy as, considering rising electricity prices, the purchase of an energy efficient appliance will pay for itself over its extended lifecycle of 10-15 years.
"The beauty is that consumers of top-end domestic appliances will not have to compromise on convenience, as energy efficiency is not achieved at the cost of performance or features.
"Our main focus is on the needs of our customers, namely the performance, quality and design of our customers. However, we offer the consumer the additional benefits of the highest appliance safety and of course contribution towards the protection of our environment.
"While we offer the same innovative range of appliances here as in Europe, we certainly have to further improve the training of retail staff to increase their awareness of the huge impact home appliances can have on our environment.
"However, as the protection of our environment gets more attention and awareness with consumers and government around the world, this element of our products could play a bigger role in the growth potential of our business.
"We believe that, as has happened in Europe and Australasia, in the coming years the authorities will play a greater role in protecting our environment and we are ready to support this process, even if it comes at additional cost.
"In the nineties we pioneered the move to hydrocarbon technology to protect the ozone layer and we are still leading the way in the development of energy efficient and environmentally compatible products.
"To reduce energy consumption is one of the main levers for curbing Co2 emissions, which are a driving factor of global warming.
"Household appliances are highly significant contributors to the energy consumption in households and respective countries. Most households are simply unaware of the potential effects and savings they could have on the environment.
"Unfortunately the figures are not available for the Middle East, but in Europe 188 million appliances are older than ten years. If these were replaced by new energy efficient appliances this would save 22 million metric tons of CO2, or around 6 per cent of the entire reduction the EU has committed to make under the Kyoto protocol.
"This year BSH's operations in the US won the Excellence in Energy Star Promotion Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency and we are striving to achieve this level of environmental performance here in this region."
According to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the greenhouse effect on climate change in the Middle East will result in an increase in the region's temperature of up to two degrees Celsius by 2030.
Fischer added: "Our new range of dishwashers save up to 34 per cent more energy and uses 40 per cent less water compared to the previous range. The new washing machine range saves 35 per cent more energy and consumes 47 per cent less water. The new refrigerators use a massive 78 per cent less energy.
"Multiply this by hundreds of thousands of households across the Middle East and we believe we are really proving innovation can make a difference to the environment."
With sales in 2006 of over US$11 billion and a workforce totalling around 38,000, BSH Group is among the top three home appliance companies in the world measured by turnover and employees. Comprising more than 70 companies in over 43 countries, BSH has 45 factories worldwide.
© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
