Background
regarding Solar Juice:
Our purpose is to deliver a
service which benefits the client as well as the environment. For the client it means a capital investment
as well as using less electricity and lowering the owner and family’s carbon
footprint. For the environment it means
less pressure on the utilisation of coal for electricity generation. Solar Juice has been operational for almost
four years and confident and proud that we, together with our clients, make a
positive difference.
Service
area = Western
Cape
Since
Solar Juice makes use of modern technology, i.e. the internet for our global presence and GPS to locate our clients for on-site
quotation / information session, we therefore save the money otherwise spend on
office space to give through as savings to our clients.
Type of
service:
Installation of:
- Solar geyser/panels;
- Swimming pool heating
- Combination of solar geyser and heat pumps for larger estates
- Low pressure systems (houses with no electrical geysers)
Solar Juice makes use of good quality products and well trained staff.We also focus on proudly South African products (which is very important for after sales service and a low carbon footprint).
The owner:
Leon Needham is the founder and owner of Solar Juice. He is passionate about making a positive difference in people's lives as well as the environment. Therefore it is important to him to provide the service to people to switch from coal based energy to solar energy as well as providing people who never had a geyser filled with hot water before, with a chance to install a solar geyser (low pressure) system.
Leon acquired a masters degree in Economical Geography (at Stellenbosch university) and he is also a qualified plumber registered at PIRB.
Solar Juice is a member of both SESSA and the Chamber of Commerce.
Social/environmental responsibility:
One of our biggest part time projects is to coordinate recycling in our home (rural) area amongst many residences and farms. We don't earn an income from this, but we know we make a positive difference. Most of the recycle bags go to *Huis Horison/Horizon House. (Horizon House is a residential and protected-employment centre in Stellenbosch specialising in the holistic care of people with a primary intellectual disability). The residents sort the recycle material and sell it to earn an income for Horizon House. They are very proud of their work and contribution. With the sorting of recycle material they managed to create jobs for various residents from Kayamandi. Our role is to visit all the farms and residences in our area, tell them about recycling and hand out bags with follow-up emails and calls to keep the recycling motivation high. The collection of these bags is a free service delivered by the Stellenbosch municipality.
Making a difference: It is all about starting with 'self' in order to help the planet. Our family challenge...
Our family's challenge is to move from highly processed products to more natural products and processes and becoming more aware of how to interact responsibly with nature and how to ensure optimum mind/body health for our family and mother nature. This requires many small steps and a lot of mind process changes, e.g. our own recycling/ re-use of packaging; composting; own herb garden; to find local producers of free-range classified animal products and organic vegetable/fruit products. The other challenge is to eat food as close to nature as possible (limited or no processing and not genetic modified), but prepared as healthy and tasty as possible. To find natural skin-care products and toiletries. To find healthy (non-chemical) and cost effective cleaning materials for our home. This journey does not mean one looses one's friends, we just gained a starting point towards our idea of a more balanced lifestyle. This process has quite an interesting and rewarding learning curve.
The good news is: We don't need to use less energy, we just need to use
less fuel.