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ePaper created 2015-12-01, 11:30:18 | version 1.43.00
36 akzente 1/15 COMMITMENT Replacing old refrigeration units is helping entrepreneurs and the environment. It is also enabling Mexico to achieve its ambitious climate targets. And business owners are delighted, because they are saving real money. Saving electricity, boosting profits TEXT Joachim Wille PHOTOS Christian Palma S alvador Morales is proud of his sugary cream cakes decorated with a red, light blue or green glaze and candied fruit. The owner of the small grocery store in the Mexican town of Toluca goes to the head-high refrigerat- ed display containing the colourful treats and carefully lifts down a red one. ‘These are very popular,’ he says. Cream cakes must be kept well chilled. ‘Otherwise they quickly go bad,’ Morales ex- plains. He knows his business: he once owned a bakery in this street, which he has now turned into a small supermarket selling a wide range of produce. But chilling his cakes re- quires a lot of electricity because he displays them in an open chilled cabinet that is already over ten years old. Morales knows that the cold air generated at great cost simply spills out of the open refrigerated units stacked one on top of the other. ‘It really isn’t very effi- cient.’ Rather more efficient, on the other hand, are three new chilled display counters, the lat- est addition to the twelve units in his store. They form the focal point of his business: this is where customers wait to be served, where Morales and his staff sell chilled foods. Yo- ghurts and milkshakes are displayed behind a glass door – for improved insulation. Since Morales had his old refrigerated cabinets re- placed a year ago, the electricity he uses in his store has been cut by one fifth. Morales’ electricity bill accounts for over a quarter of all overheads – for the refrigera- tion, lighting and computers in his store, which employs around 35 staff. But the shop- keeper would never have been able to switch to cost-saving refrigerated units without some assistance. The investment involved was simply much too high. A chilled cabinet costs around 30,000 pesos, equivalent to around EUR 1,800 – an impossible sum to finance on such slender profit margins. Then one day a man came into Morales’ store and told him about a state programme that issued loans to small and medium-sized businesses to up- grade refrigerated appliances, air condition- ing and lighting systems. ‘I found the idea in- teresting and agreed to try out three new units,’ Morales explains. The new chilled cabinets are miracles of efficiency compared to his old units. Electric- ity consumption is so low that the savings ac- cumulated over just four years are enough to refinance their acquisition. After that, the new refrigerators will belong to small entre- preneurs like Morales – who from that point on will be saving real cash. The programme behind all this was developed by GIZ on be- half of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Build- ing and Nuclear Safety in collaboration with relevant Mexican ministries and several com- panies, including state energy providers. Energy costs leave some facing bankruptcy Alexandra Garcia, one of Morales’ employees, is responsible for keeping the books. She pro- duces the electricity bills she receives every two months. In 2012 the monthly bills came to 25,000 pesos. During the first year of the re- frigerator replacement programme, payments fell to 24,800 pesos. ‘But 5,600 pesos of each bill counted towards repayment of the » Left: Salvador Morales’ cakes are displayed in energy- wasting open refrigerated display cabinets. Right: The new chilled counter now forms the store’s focal point.