The Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) will be moving to a new 330 m³ green office at Growthpoint Properties’ River Park facility, in Mowbray, in Cape Town, on June 1 under a three-year lease.

River Park recently improved its green rating to a GBCSA 5-Star Green Star SA – Existing Building Performance v1 certification, with high scores for its land use and ecology, green transport access and energy and water savings.

GBCSA CEO Lisa Reynolds says a green building rating was a prerequisite for the council’s choice of offices, in addition to several other rigorous requirements.

“The GBCSA also sought an inspiring workspace in a good location with excellent accessibility for visitors. The office is near GBCSA’s former offices so staff travel would not be affected by the move and, thus, did not increase their carbon footprint,” she adds.

River Park, on Liesbeeck Parkway, Settlers Way, is well connected to and well served by the city’s transport networks. It also offers more than 13 000 m³ of upmarket office space.

“River Park’s offices meet all our needs and more. We are excited to continue encouraging and enabling South Africa’s green building movement and green economy from our new green home at River Park. We could not be more pleased to be taking this journey with Growthpoint, a leading advocate for green building and a founding member of GBCSA,” says Reynolds.

Growthpoint Western Cape regional asset manager Timothy Irvine says the company is pleased to extend its long-standing relationship with the GBCSA. “No one knows better the advantages of green offices than the GBCSA. In addition to their positive environmental impacts, they save money, increase employee productivity and are generally great places to work.”

Green buildings, he says, support the performance of the businesses occupying them, which is why Growthpoint prioritises providing green, resource-efficient work spaces.

Green building and solar energy are the two main tools that Growthpoint has identified to meet its ambitious target for all its 400-plus South African buildings to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

Growthpoint started investing in green buildings and solar energy over a decade ago. To date, it has 12.3 MW of renewable energy generation capacity installed at its properties, which it aims to expand to 46 MW in the next five years.

With more than 100 of its buildings certified green, Growthpoint’s ongoing investment in solar energy and green buildings reduces carbon emissions, creates energy and water efficiency, lowers tenant costs and ensures continuity of power supply.