South African industry needs practical strategies to cut unnecessary costs and minimise risks in a carbon-restricted economy, not just more theoretical discussions about carbon.
One of the most practical yet often overlooked decarbonisation opportunities in manufacturing is eliminating daily electricity waste from inefficient legacy lighting, such as HID and fluorescent systems, across large industrial sites.
Lights out
With the carbon tax having increased in January 2026 and electricity tariffs continuing to rise, this hidden cost is becoming harder to ignore.
Industry effectively pays twice: first through unnecessary electricity consumption and again through the emissions exposure associated with that wasted demand.
Carbon credits too often lead the conversation when they should follow it.
The stronger, more credible story begins with a measurable operational intervention that replaces inefficient lighting, reduces electricity demand, and quantifies the reduction against an approved baseline.
As South Africa’s grid is still coal-heavy, every verified reduction in electricity use also represents a real reduction in associated greenhouse gas emissions.
These reductions are quantified under an approved carbon-crediting methodology.
The project must be independently validated, and the monitored emission reductions are subsequently verified.
After Verra (the global non-profit organisation that develops and manages leading standards for climate action, sustainable development, and environmental markets) reviews and approves the project, it may issue qualifying reductions as tradable carbon credits known as verified carbon units (VCUs).
Each VCU represents one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) reduced or removed.
Only after this process is complete does the conversation move from operational savings to potential carbon value.
As scrutiny of exaggerated environmental claims and greenwashing grows, businesses need to demonstrate real, measurable operational improvements before making broader decarbonisation claims.
This is where the funding model becomes as important as the technology.
For many industrial businesses, the problem is not knowing that old lighting is inefficient.
It is finding the capital, securing internal approvals and allocating the resources needed to implement the change.
Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Nelson Banya 26 Aug 2026 Light at the end of the tunnel
Lighting as a service helps remove these barriers.
Most lighting upgrades can be completed during normal operating hours with minimal disruption to production, reducing the need for major planned downtime.
This makes the upgrade not only technically achievable but commercially actionable.
This is especially important in 2026.
South Africa’s carbon tax increased from R236 to R308 per tonne of CO2e on 1 January 2026.
Eskom’s latest tariff cycle resulted in an 8.76% increase for direct customers from 1 April, with municipal increases averaging 9.01% from July.
Even though grid stability has improved, electricity remains a strategic cost for energy-intensive businesses.
For plants that operate around the clock and face tight margins, wasted electricity demand is a competitive problem, not simply a utility expense.
For companies that need to report progress honestly, this discipline is what makes the model valuable.
It allows them to speak first about measured reductions in electricity use and then about a properly governed process through which qualifying reductions may create carbon value.
Once qualifying reductions are verified and credits are issued, those credits may have value in the voluntary carbon market.
Where eligible and listed through South Africa’s carbon offset system, carbon-tax-liable companies may also use them to reduce their carbon tax liability within the limits permitted by the applicable framework.
Spotlight
This issue affects more than one company or sector.
Steel, food processing and other heavy industries are all facing higher electricity costs, increasing carbon pressure and the need to modernise.
Government intervention in the ferrochrome sector this year showed how decisive power costs can be for industrial survival.
Food and agro-processing businesses are similarly exposed to electricity-driven increases in production costs across the grain, dairy and bakery value chains.
The real opportunity, therefore, is not to chase carbon credits in isolation but to remove operational waste that can be addressed now.
The practical question for industrial businesses is straightforward: where are you still paying for electricity that adds no strategic value to production, and what is stopping you from removing it?
If lighting is part of the answer, start there.
If those measured reductions later qualify for carbon value after the required assessment and verification, treat that value as an additional benefit of doing the first job properly, not a substitute for it.
South African industrial companies with large lighting loads that want to explore whether their sites could qualify should get in touch before year-end.
At the same time, the programme still has room, ahead of changes to the international framework.
A site that joins now secures roughly eight more years of eligibility, rather than only a first year.
