Turning back the clock to advance quality of life

Many businesses in Durban are discovering the advantages of daylight saving, writes JANETTE BENNETT

EVERY day in January, staff at Durban law firm Livingstone Leandy close up shop at 3.30pm, an hour earlier than usual. Then they make full use of the extra leisure hour tacked on to their summer day. They hit the beach or the gym, do some gardening, play tennis with their children, take their dogs for a walk, or just relax.
The firm's 100 staff members are able to do this because Livingstone Leandy is practising a form of daylight saving to take full advantage of the country's glorious summers.

The firm's managing director, Gordon Pentecost, has unwittingly found himself in the driving seat of a growing movement aimed at getting SA to officially adopt daylight saving.

For four years, he has experimented with daylight saving at his firm. As the concept has gathered momentum, more companies have jumped onto the bandwagon.

Pentecost estimates around 50 Durban companies practise some form of daylight saving. And he receives inquiries from all over the country, including the Western Cape where the sun sets at 8pm in summer, almost an hour later than it does in Durban.

He came up with the idea after a visit to the US and the UK, where he was impressed with the ease with which the UK particularly slipped into summer time. While some states in the US such as Arizona and Hawaii do not observe daylight saving time, all clocks in the UK conform to summer time.

"It seemed to work so well over there, and I thought it was crazy that we were not doing it in SA. I decided to try it. One of our best assets is our climate and we should use it to the full," he says.

The benefits of daylight saving are many. If people had more daylight leisure time, the tourism and leisure industries would receive a boost. There would be obvious savings with more efficient use of electricity. In fact, many countries, including SA, utilised daylight saving during the world wars to save power.

On the human resources side, daylight saving fits in with the trend towards a more employee-sensitive, family-oriented work environment.

And in Pentecost's experience, daylight saving has a positive effect on productivity. During January, his staff start work an hour earlier, at 7am, and leave work an hour earlier. "We have found people get more work done if they have an early start. It's so hot at this time of the year that people tend to wilt as the day goes on. They are fresher in the morning," he says.

The response from staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Ronnie Govender, an assistant in the firm's accounts department, uses the extra time to put in training for the Comrades Marathon and spend quality time with his children. "Normally, by the time I get home from my run, it is dark and the children are in bed. This way I get to see them."

Legal secretary Betty Passmore spends her extra daytime hour gardening or travelling to see her grandchildren. "I can't understand why everyone does not do it. I am sure they would if they realised how many benefits there are."

Pentecost has written to Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Pallo Jordan about daylight saving. But the Minister's office informed him there were many other pressing needs in SA which were more important.

"It really would be very simple to change the law for daylight saving," Pentecost says.

For an idea on how SA could adopt daylight saving, we could look to Australia.

In parts of that country - such as New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia - time is advanced for an hour during the summer months. At 2am standard time on the last Sunday in October, clocks are put forward one hour, to 3am. At 3am summer time on the last Sunday in March, clocks are put back one hour, to 2am. Incidentally, its introduction by an act of law in the 1970s followed a referendum.

A possible snag if SA adopts uniform daylight saving is dealing with the time difference between sunrise and sunset on the country's eastern and western seaboards. According to the Weather Bureau, on January 1 the sun rose at 4.58am in Durban and set at 7.01pm. In Cape Town, sunrise was at 5.39am and sunset at 8.01pm. In Johannesburg, it rose at 5.20am and set at 7.04pm.

An option is to have just the eastern parts of the country change their clocks - Cape Town, to all intents and purposes, already practices daylight saving in summer. But Pentecost sees this causing some logistical problems, for example to airlines.

On the other hand, if the entire country practised daylight saving, Pentecost does not believe even Cape Town would balk at gaining an extra hour.

Original Source: http://www.btimes.co.za/99/0124/news/news03.htm