While initially targeting sustainability and energy efficiency in new constructs, the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) says it is now observing an accelerated uptake in the retrofitment of existing buildings, with energy efficiency and sustainability considerations no longer restricted to new property developments, delegates at the Southern African Energy Efficiency Convention heard on Thursday.

GBCSA business development executive Jarrod Lewin told delegates that, while the bulk of certifications still applied to new builds, property owners were becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of introducing technologies that enhanced the efficiency of an existing building’s energy, water and waste processes, narrowing its environmental footprint.

The council reported that the number of overall certifications was roughly doubling on a year-on-year basis, increasing from 26 certifications in 2014 to 85 so far this year.

“We’re in a water and energy crisis and we need to innovate our way out of this. We can, for example, commoditise waste and start thinking of it as an asset that can be used to generate energy.

“When the GBCSA was established eight years ago, we worked mainly with the innovators and risk takers, but [our rating system] is becoming the norm in construction. We want this to become the new normal and we think that we’re there, we’re at that tipping point,” he commented.

The GBCSA’s Green Star South Africa (SA) Existing Building Performance Tool covered the same environmental categories dealt with in the Green Star SA New Building Tool, but was valid for a period of three years to ensure the building was continually well operated and maintained, with items such as energy and water monitoring, management policies and plans required for accreditation.

Developed to cater for a range of commercial buildings, including office, retail and public assembly buildings, the tool also addressed the relationship between landlord and tenants.

A key component of the energy and water categories of the Existing Building Performance Tool was the GBCSA’s Energy Water Performance (EWP).

Currently developed for office buildings, the EWP was a free resource that allowed a comparison of energy and water performance against industry benchmarks.

“It allows existing building owners or portfolio managers to easily benchmark their properties in terms of energy and water performance, informing key investment decisions. The EWP is 40% to the Existing Building Performance Certification but is available as a separate certification of energy and water performance,” Lewin explained.

One such building to recently be awarded a Four-Star GBCSA Existing Building Performance Certificate, was a 25 000 m2 training and accommodation facility owned by Standard Bank South Africa.

Standard Bank South Africa energy manager Dr Braam Dalgleish said the bank had set an 11% energy use reduction target by 2020 and had, since retrofitment and the introduction of various energy-minimisation interventions, narrowed the facility’s yearly energy consumption from 4.9-million kilowatt-hours a year to 4.6-million kilowatt-hours a year, realising savings thus far of some R200 000.