About suntoy

Suntoy combines the potential of solar technology with renewable and sustainable energy solutions. From design to manufacture of the Consol Solar Jar ™, we are proudly South African.

Suntoy Advocates for Fair Trade

By |2025-02-24T15:50:26+00:00January 13th, 2020|

Suntoy advocates for responsible social and environmental standards in the manufacture of all our products. Our team has adopted goals similar to Fair Trade ideals to insure honorable working conditions and promote sustainability within our company. We are transparent about the working conditions of all our employees and promote respect and meaningful dialogue.

The Consol Solar Jar is a responsibly and fairly produced solar light handmade in our factory in Johannesburg, South Africa. Suntoy employs 44 adult South Africans from the Alexandra and Soweto townships in Gauteng. They have been trained in photovoltaic theory with overall skills upliftment. As a team, they have made, to date, ¾ of a million units (750k).

We thereby promote greater equity in our international trading partnership with Sonnenglas, our European distributor. Sonnenglas is supportive of the jobs created in South Africa.

As a joint venture with Consol, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices are Suntoy’s focuses. Our team has made a conscious decision to adopt Common Shared Value, a philosophy that has made our company culture fair.

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Wire Artisans Shine at Suntoy

By |2025-02-24T15:50:26+00:00January 13th, 2020|

Tourists visiting South Africa often return home to global destinations with beaded wire artefacts: from tiny mementoes, such as key rings, to tall sculptures of giraffes. Wire and bead artisans, creating in various gauges and colours with few tools but their own hands, are common sightings on our Jozi street corners. They may have good sales one month and none the next. Income varies, yet many tenaciously continue, their need for a job pushing them to become entrepreneurs.

One such wire artist stands out from the rest. Maxwell Jaravazo is driven to create the extraordinary from a piece of wire and a handful of beads. His imagination spans beyond the Melville street corner where he used to trade from. Max crafts magic within his hands. For many years, Harald Schulz passed him on the street and they struck up a friendship. When the very first Consol Solar Jar needed a wire handle and bracing, Max was Harald’s first choice as fellow designer. Together, they made the prototype in January 2011 while sitting on the pavement of 7th Street in Melville.

As demand grew, Suntoy grew… and so did Max. Suntoy permanently employed him three years ago. As a significant member of our team, he has job security and a steady monthly income. He was promoted to Factory Supervisor and now trains and overseas a team of 12 fellow wire artisans. These men are now all under one roof from multiple street corners across our city. That’s job creation, the South African way.

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Stories Build Suntoy Brand

By |2025-02-24T15:50:26+00:00January 13th, 2020|

In order to flourish in our current South African economy, creative brand leadership is imperative for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) such as Suntoy. An innovative business model with strong social responsibilities drives our brand.

Being a manufacturer, we don’t have a direct link to the end-user as our resellers do. To create awareness, our brand building and cultural movement strategies have had to spark interest unconventionally by engaging content ideas through storytelling. At Suntoy, we’ve introduced our team, our values and culture, the context of our products, our significance as a vehicle for education, job creation and renewable energy solutions through the telling of stories. Our stories tell more than an online product catalogue ever could.

With each tale told, our brand is further established. Our blog not only holds our stories, but the experiences of our customers too. Stories have strengthened our tribe, furthered our reach and enabled us to build a smart, authentic and valued brand with prospective future forecasts beyond the products we assemble. Our customers continue to purchase our brand and buy our story – not just our product. That’s essential to Suntoy’s livelihood.

Three challenging yet exciting years of strategic thought have enhanced our brand equity. With this solid grounding firmly established, our brand is credibly differentiated and experienced. Suntoy, the sunniest team of solar enthusiasts, is ready to launch our next chapter. Keep your eyes peeled. That’s what having fun in the South African sun is all about!

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Earth Hour Lights On!

By |2025-02-24T15:50:26+00:00January 13th, 2020|

Two lights-OFF events are presently on our calendars. The first, load shedding, has everyone complaining, “Ah no, not again.” The second, Earth Hour, has everyone agreeing, “Yes, let’s!” If every load shedding hour included the positivity of an Earth Hour, there’d be a happy public relations feat instead of a collective grumpy sigh.

Earth Hour 2015 occurs in the midst of the urgent need to find solutions to our current energy crisis in South Africa. Every South African is attuned to the critical state of our national power grid. Sunshine is abundantly available and renewable solar energy lightens our national power supplier’s load.

Suntoy invites you all to create your own solar-lit celebration with the Consol Solar Jar, harmoniously off-grid and lights-ON (even while the world’s lights are off!). Join us in adding to the solar-generated brightness of eve at home, in your garden or with friends at a party this Saturday, 28 March, during Earth Hour from 20:30 to 21:30.

Suntoy promises to give our planet a brighter future by making every hour a solar-power-hour.

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Hotel Verde Solar Eve

By |2025-02-24T15:50:26+00:00January 13th, 2020|

Hoteliers are adopting green building measures to accommodate tourists wanting to lessen their environmental impact while globetrotting. Hotel Verde in Cape Town offers a carbon-neutral stay. It doesn’t just observe one earth friendly hour a year but celebrates its greenness 365 days per annum.

The staff is enthusiastic about sustainability, trained in energy efficiency methods and passionate about the Solar Jar ™. Every Wednesday, they invite guests to join them for energy conservation awareness evenings. All unnecessary lights are switched off and solar lights are switched on. Diners enjoy live acoustic music and a specially prepared menu including pizza baked in a wood fired oven. Visitors are amazed when reminded that they’re at an airport hotel.

In March, Hotel Verde hosted Earth Hour. The event was wonderfully received with a prize of a Solar Jar ™.  Our partners, Sonnenglas, joined the eve of solar light and snapped these photos.

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Solar Jars and Schoolbags

By |2025-02-24T15:50:26+00:00January 13th, 2020|

Partner Products can bring innovative products to market effectively. The Solar Jar ™ is solidly established in consumers’ eyes and is well-positioned to assist in bringing a newer, less known partner product to market.

The Solar Jar ™ is now offered bundled with a partner product, the Repurpose Schoolbag. It’s a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit. Made from upcycled plastic shopping bags, the Repurpose Schoolbag has a pocket that integrates the lid of the Solar Jar ™.

During the day, while scholars walk to school with the schoolbag strapped to their backs, the solar panel charges in the sun. At night, the lid is screwed onto the Consol glass jar and transforms into a solar-powered reading light to study by. The schoolbag gives the solar panel an alternative mode of charging instead of remaining on a window cill by day.

Suntoys priority is to supply solar lights to children living off-grid in informal settlements. Our team now has an additional outlet with Repurpose Schoolbags to increase our reach. It’s a collaboration to achieve shared goals.

Rethaka, the company that produces the schoolbags, connects with Giving Partners, such as Consol, to fund the making, distribution and coupling with Solar Jar ™.  “Reimagining how solar energy can become easily accessible to those who need it the most, is what was at the heart of the integration of the solar light with our school bags,” said Thato Kgatlhanya of Rethaka.

As partners, we were all excited when Bill Gates mentioned the solar pocketed schoolbags on Twitter.

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Advocating for ‘Green’ Recycled Wire

By |2025-02-24T15:50:26+00:00January 13th, 2020|

The wire used in the assemblage of the Solar Jar ™ is 90% recycled. Suntoy procures it from Cape Gate where post consumer scrap metal is collected, sorted and refined. All raw materials are of South African origin and the smelting, rolling and wire manufacturing process is done locally.

By recycling wire, a lesser quantity of new material is required during the wire-making process and the amount of discarded metal dumped into landfills is reduced. By consciously choosing ‘green wire’ and upcycling it into the bracing and handle of the Solar Jar ™, our product is made that much more environmentally friendly.

Read about our team of Suntoy wire artisans here.

“Thanks for the interesting tour of your operation. It is good to see where our wire products are used and the end product.” – Derek Erxleben, Head Metallurgy, Cape Gate

 

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Light Up A Life, M’Khaya

By |2025-02-24T15:50:26+00:00January 13th, 2020|

The Suntoy team is excited to be partnering with Kaya FM 95.9 in their #LightUpALife campaign. This Kaya Cares event is a Mandela Day initiative. Lighting up a life, one child at a time is imperative to creating a future absent of darkness and shining with brightness. A Solar Jar is a gift worth giving.

Suntoy has donated 192 Solar Jars. The M’Khaya team has distributed the Solar Jars to child-headed households at Othandweni Children’s Home in Soweto and Rays of Hope Orphanage in Alexandria, Gauteng. The campaign was launched on the Bob Mabena morning show in preparation for rollout.

In Jozi city, our lives revolve around the daunting load-shedding schedule. At Suntoy, we are off-grid and production continues regardless of stages one to three. We’re one of the lucky ones.

For many children though, there are no load shedding stages… simply darkness… every night. More than 1.4million South Africans live without electricity in informal settlements across our country. Scholars aren’t able to complete their homework or study in the dark. A solar-powered reading light charges in the sun during the day and welcomes the children home at sunset. No electricity or candles needed. An unplugged light source – similar to KayaFM’s unplugged live studio sessions featuring South African musicians.

Join us, M’Khaya. Do your part! #LightUpALife

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” ~ Nelson Mandela

Please note: Faces of orphans in photographs have been blurred to protect identities. The Kaya FM team shared these two photos.

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Improved Consol Solar Jar Launched

By |2025-02-24T15:50:27+00:00January 13th, 2020|

Team Suntoy is proud to introduce the improved Consol Solar Jar. The Consol Solar Jar has been admired for the last three years. Now, this solar-powered light is significantly enlightened, making for an improved offering.

Familiar features we’ve loved are still present – the classic Consol preserve jar, unique flip switch and wire carry handle. Innovative enhancements stem from the electronics redesign. Here are additional features making the Consol Solar Jar your most valued solar powered light:

LiFE Battery

A long-lasting LiFe (Lithium Iron) Battery, similar to those used in cellphones, replaces the original solar batteries. If fully charged, it endures for up to 12 hours.

Load-Shedding Find Me

The load-shedding attribute is a plus for our South African environs. During a sudden power outage, the Consol Solar Jar automatically lights up for a few seconds so it can be located easily. Our team calls it the Find Me feature.

Day/Night Energy Saver

An energy-saving day/night feature prevents the Consol Solar Jar from turning on automatically during daylight. When darkness falls, it automatically turns on to light the night.

Stainless Steel Ring

The ring enclosing the solar panel is now stainless steel – watertight and rust-free.

Battery Indicator

A state-of-battery-charge indicator flashes when the light is turned on or off. Five flashes indicate full, one flash indicates empty, letting you know when it is time to recharge.

Recharge Flash

When the battery is empty, the white indicator pulses every two seconds to show it needs to be recharged.

Micro USB Charger

A micro USB charge plug has been designed for our European consumer base where sunlight is scarce. Connecting a micro USB cellphone charger results in the charge indicator flashing.

Brighter Light

The brightness has been improved, while retaining a good runtime, with LED’s specifically designed for the Consol Solar Jar by Plessey in the UK.

The new and improved Consol Solar Jar is currently available in retail locally across South Africa and abroad in Europe.

“We had fun redesigning the Consol Solar Jar and trust you will have fun using it.”

– Harald Schulz, Suntoy Technical and Managing Director

 

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How the Consol Solar Jar Came to Mauritius

By |2025-02-24T15:50:27+00:00January 13th, 2020|

Jean Phillippe Daulaud, a French national, has lived in Mauritius for quite a few years and upon spending his honeymoon in Cape Town in 2012, he stumbled across a Consol Solar Jar for the first time.  JP was so fond of his new discovery, that he purchased two before returning to Mauritius. That was 3 years ago. At the end of 2014, JP would have drinks with Nick Wiehe, an Irish national. They became good friends and spoke about business ideas for the Consol Solar Jar. They decided on a plan to distribute the Consol Solar Jars to the exclusivity niche market they had identified – The Indian Ocean Islands.

Fast forwarding to the present day, Nick and JP have both been fully involved in their new business venture since August  2015 this  year, having successfully distributed the Consol Solar Jars through a number of hotels to their guests. In addition to the Consol Solar Jar creating an environmentally friendly consciousness, it beautifully complements the hospitality industry and also serves as a precious keepsake for visitors to the island to fondly remember their time spent in such a magical location.

For JP and Nick, marketing the Consol Solar Jar is much more than a means of earning a living and sharing a social consciousness, they also realise the importance of sustainability, which is why “The Mauritian Sunshine for Children In Need” campaign was created affording a child in need, a free Jar for every 2 Jars sold. Not only will this remarkable campaign shed some light into the lives of those who need it most, it will also serve to educate the next generation on the importance of renewable energy.

They also made a ‘Solar Jar Caravan’ to show the Consol Solar Jar in each part of the Island and meet people from every social environment. “We do not wait for clients in the shops, we are always trying to meet them in the villages to speak to them about the importance of solar energy, and the Consol Solar Jar is perfect for them to have their first solar experience” say Nick & JP.

Managing the other islands in the Indian Ocean especially Reunion, Seychelles and Madagascar, Nick and JP are confident for the future success of the Consol Solar Jar with each island having their own local agent.

We look forward to further successful endeavors from the Indian Ocean Islands, and are proud of the fact that the Consol Solar Jar has achieved an almost impossible feat:

Making the already dazzling beauty of Mauritius shine just a little bit brighter!

 

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