Stronger government encouragement in the private sector was needed in South Africa for the green building industry to remain sustainable, South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi) senior manager of energy efficiency and corporate communications Barry Bredenkamp said at the Green Building and Energy Efficient Conference, hosted by the French Trade Commission, in Johannesburg, last month.

He noted that government was prioritising the development of its energy performance certificate (EPC), focused mainly on energy consumption and reduction.

Owing to the current water and electricity crisis, Bredenkamp said government might expand its EPC programme and focus on more than energy, adding that government should also encourage the private sector to work with the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA).

Although South Africa was not on par with the rest of the world regarding the sustainability and number of green buildings in the country, it was making progress, he added.

“Australia started its green building certification process in early 2000 in South Africa, it took off only in 2008. What we see [here] is that the exponential growth is on the same trajectory as Australia, although we are lagging a few years behind.”

Bredenkamp pointed out that the main challenges South Africa faced, when building green buildings and greening existing buildings, were making them efficient and affordable. He noted that there was an incremental cost when greening buildings, and that capital was scarce.

“The other challenge is that the developments are fragmented; it is not structured – it’s all over the place,” he said.

Also speaking at the conference, property developer Growthpoint properties head of sustainability and utility Werner Van Antwerpen noted that more awareness was needed on the greening of buildings in South Africa to encourage sustainability.

“In Australia, for example, a building can’t be sold if it doesn’t have a certain type of green certification or standard. The difficulty with certification in South Africa is that, for a long time, the country did not have the suite of tools needed to certify existing buildings and new buildings,” he said, adding that the current building certification tool was launched only in 2013.

Bredenkamp stressed that people needed to start demanding that buildings have some sort of green star-rated certification for South Africa to be on par with the rest of the world.

Van Antwerpen stated that the South African Property Association Grading, ranging from between an A and a C grade, was used in the property sector.

He explained that, when buying a building, a buyer did not always know what green efficiency entailed: “GBCSA certifications gives a quality stamp on buildings and if a purchaser buys or a tenant leases space in a building, he or she knows that the building adheres to that certain quality standard.”

Bredenkamp added that people were vying for green building ratings, but once the rating had been achieved/awarded, the building was not properly maintained.

“A more constant policing method needs to be implemented. Training, skills transference and peer review are required to maintain green building certification standards. We need to create healthy competition such as an ombudsman. This requires resources and capital, however,” he said.

Consulting firm Sustainable Solutions senior consultant representing Nedbank Danelle Veldsman said that one of the “massive” barriers in the green building sector was getting concessional funding into the country for affordable housing and that energy efficient measures had to be incorporated into such a price-sensitive market.