The R15.5-million refurbishment and transformation of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s (Numsa’s) regional office, in central Johannesburg, into the first ecofriendly union office in Gauteng, will be completed in July, says second VP Christine Olivier.

The nine-storey building houses Numsa’s regional office for the greater Johannesburg and West Rand area.

The refurbishment, which kicked off in March last year, forms part of Numsa’s undertaking to reduce the carbon footprint of its buildings, a pro- cess that started at the union’s head office, in Newtown, in 2007. It is also in line with the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ resolution for affiliate unions to reduce their carbon footprints.

The programme will eventually see about 30 buildings being revamped and is expected to continue for the next ten years, project manager and Shimwell Designs owner Katharine Shimwell tells Engineering News.

With a budget that was set a year before and that could not be increased, contractors had to implement cost-saving solutions, including reusing and recycling material from the old building and implementing an efficient water-use plan and an energy-saving plan.

Olivier says the refurbishment pro- gramme is aimed at finding feasible and sustainable solutions that will allow for the long-term use of the buildings, as well as maximum use of locally manufactured products.

Shimwell indicates that this target has been met, as roughly 15% of the construction costs sre spent on imported goods.

Meanwhile, to provide additional power to service the requirements of the refurbished building, a 30 KWp solar photo- voltaic (PV) panel solution was installed on the roof, which was designed to provide about 30% of the building’s daily peak electricity requirements.

Green Habitat CEO Maurits Perold, who was tasked with the provision and installation of the PV system, tells Engineering News that it is the highest installation of its kind in the country.

The solar panels feed into a 30 kW uninterruptible power supply that powers all the main functions of the building, such as security, computers, emergency lighting and some air conditioners. The system has also been synchronised with the municipal supply to reduce consumption and costs.

The building is also equipped with low-energy fluorescent lighting and light-emitting-diode lights, while floors occupied by Numsa are fitted with motion and ultrasonic sensors that switch lighting on and off, depending on occupancy.

To further enable energy savings, inverters that modulate compressor speed and that have soft-start features have been installed. These devices enable a 50% reduction in power consumption.

Meanwhile, the building’s water supply is gravity-fed from storage tanks mounted on the roof. Other water-saving installations include ‘demand’ taps that are fitted in the bathrooms, small under-counter and above-counter units that supply 5 ℓ of water heated at the point of use, as well as a water tank that harvests rainwater.

“South Africa is on the edge of a catas- trophic water crisis, which demands proper management of this scarce resource.

“As a union, we have resolved to put increased emphasis on a safer and greener [planet], because we have a role to play in preserving it for future generations,” Olivier concludes.