French electrical automation company Legrand said on Thursday that even though South Africa was still a relatively "newcomer" to the green building industry, the market had shown significant growth over the past three years.

The global green building market currently accounts for about €240-billion, with North America leading the pack, and Europe at its heels.

South Africa opened its own Green Building Council in 2008, primarily using Australia's Greenstar environmental rating system for buildings as the basis of a local rating system, and is among a handful of countries worldwide that had set comprehensive targets for energy-efficiency improvements.

The country's energy-efficiency strategy aims to reduce energy demand by 12% within the next five years. State-owned power utility Eskom's demand-side management (DSM) strategy plans to save 4 255 MW over a period of 20 years.

Legrand commercial building and energy-efficiency manager Patrick Valton told Engineering News Online that an easy way to save energy and increase energy efficiency was by simply managing lighting systems.

He noted that even though lighting was not always considered as one of the prime energy users, it actually accounted for one third of power consumption in commercial buildings, even outweighing elements such as heating, cooling and ventilation.

Valton said that, in essence, there was a "lighting evolution" taking place. "Last year, a number of countries had started forbidding the use of normal light bulbs, to make the switch to electronic ballasts, with the last roll-out planned to be completed by 2012."

He added that the next step would be to move from the electronic ballast, to controllable ballasts that would integrate digital industry standard interfaces. "This switch will be a bit more long-term, and will probably take about three to four years to implement."

However, Valton excitedly noted that light emitting diode or LED lighting products were increasingly being developed and offered to the market. "It is amazing to see how many companies are coming to the table with new LED product offerings, hopefully these products will have a real impact on the market within the next two to five years."

Ultimately, he predicted that lighting would go a whole new direction, where light becomes a pixel, named organic LED lighting. "Technology tests will arrive quickly in high-end fixtures, but the trend is for a technological deployment in the next six to eight years."

Valton was confident that the South African market would keep up with global trends in green building and lighting management, and added that Legrand intended to get a further footing in the lighting technology and automation market in the country.