Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, which attracts more than 23-million visitors each year, was awarded the Heritage Environmental Management Company’s (Heritage's) Silver classification after a recent audit.

The waterfront is the first of its kind in Africa to be independently audited and certified for its environmental compliance.

“We take our reputation and green credentials very seriously and are committed to ensuring our environmental and sustainability measures and initiatives are at the forefront of all our business practices and deliver world-class standards and practices,” the Waterfront’s executive manager of operations, Colin Devenish said.

The Waterfront’s aim was to achieve Heritage’s Gold status within the next year through increased awareness generation and the implementation of more sustainable practices across its operations.

“We believe greening our operations is the right and responsible way to operate as one of South Africa’s leading tourist destinations and the City of Cape Town’s largest and most diverse property offerings. We also realise the efficiencies and cost savings that greening our operations provide,” Devenish said.

In an effort made to meet its green objective, the Waterfront’s waste management section is recycling about 40% of its waste, or 120 t/m, which translated to savings of over R876 000/y. The company has recycled more than 4000 t of waste since it started recycling in 2009.

Further, the redevelopment of the Clock Tower Precinct and the construction of No 1 Silo were guided by the global requirements for environmentally sustainable construction, as governed by the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA).

“We have adopted a comprehensive green construction and sustainable solutions imperative as a critical part of the overall V&A Waterfront development strategy,” noted V&A Waterfront CEO David Green.

The building has been registered as a Green Star South Office Design and the waterfront was aiming for a four stars in GBCSA’s Green Star South Arica rating.

“One of the key differentiators of this building will be its energy efficiency, owing to its unique positioning to the ocean and ability to benefit from a sophisticated seawater cooling system,” Green explained.

He added that the energy performance of a typical No 1 Silo office floor had been compared against a similar floor, with system and material properties set as the minimum required by the building energy use standard SANS 204.

The analysis showed that roughly 50% was saved on electricity consumption.
 

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