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Cape Quarter to undergo greening transformation

12th March 2014

By: Natalie Greve

Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

  

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Tower Property Funds’ flagship property, the Cape Quarter, in Cape Town, is set to undergo an “extensive greening transformation” as part of the fund’s greening and occupancy cost-reduction strategy.

The fund, which listed under the JSE’s new real-estate investment trust structure in July 2013, had set a clear strategy of occupancy cost reductions across the board for all buildings within its portfolio, underpinned by a strong focus on greening.

“Tightly managed and controlled operational costs mitigate pressure on headline rentals, allowing for predictable sustainable, growth into the future,” Tower Property Fund CEO Marc Edwards said in a statement.

Among the initiatives to be rolled out at the Cape Quarter was a lighting retrofit in all common areas and the basement parking area.

“All the florescent lighting in the parking area will be retrofitted with [light-emitting diode] LED lighting, while the cove lighting in the common areas at the Cape Quarter would be replaced with LED strip lighting – allowing for a visual upgrade as well as the obvious energy use reduction,” explained Spire Property Management national facilities manager Simon Penso.

As the managing agents of the Cape Quarter, Spire would be carrying out the greening transformation.

“It has been calculated that this lighting retrofit alone will result in an about 805 360 kWh/y reduction in energy consumption as well as an 885 896 kg/y reduction in [carbon dioxide] CO2 output for the building.

“We will also be offering package deals to the tenants at the Cape Quarter who would like to also undergo a lighting retrofit,” commented Penso.

A basement fan sensor system with sensors would also be introduced to monitor the carbon monoxide levels and switch on the extraction fans only when needed.   

“It is estimated that this will result in a 70% reduction in the running time of these fans, resulting in a 527 352 kWh/y reduction in energy consumption and a 580 087 kg/y reduction in CO2 emissions,” Penso noted.

He added that the Cape Quarter already had waterless urinals as well as an active recycling programme in place, which recycled about 40% of all the waste generated on site. 

“We are always looking for ways to improve this figure and are currently investigating the viability of a biodigester to process all the wet waste that comes from the restaurants at the Cape Quarter as well as a small biodiesel plant, which will turn all the vegetable oil from the restaurants into biodiesel to fuel the centre’s generator, which is used whenever the municipal grid is under pressure,” Penso outlined.

The company had further researched the possibility of installing a grey water and rainwater harvesting system; however, as all the pipes were encased in columns, this was not currently viable.

Additional initiatives currently being investigated for possible future roll-out were escalator sensors that would only power the escalators when someone was on them, heat pumps, as well as the installation of photovoltaic solar panels.

Moreover, the Cape Quarter had been accepted as one of the pilot buildings for the new Green Building Council of South Africa’s (GBCSA’s) Existing Buildings Rating Tool, which would allow the centre to obtain a GBCSA Green Star-SA rating.

Edwards explained that Tower would also use the GBCSA’s Energy and Water Benchmarking Tool, which would allow the company to measure the performance of a building in terms of energy and water consumption, and compare this to industry norms. 

“Recent global research has shown that green buildings outperform normal buildings significantly, on average achieving rental premiums of 6%, capital value improvements of 12% and reduced operating costs of 30%,” he noted.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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