In a bid to acknowledge the socioeconomic achievements of new green building projects and refurbishments, the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) has launched the pilot Socioeconomic Category (SEC) for Green Star South Africa (SA) rating tools.

Currently being tested across several developing construction projects, the category advanced beyond the traditional green evaluation criteria to assess the social and economic elements of construction projects, and the extent to which these contributed to broader sustainability and poverty alleviation objectives.

Once fully implemented, it would be the first global socioeconomic rating tool for green buildings and would focus chiefly on a developing country context, while providing a framework for adaptation in other international markets.

The category, which was sponsored by Old Mutual Properties, would remain in the pilot phase for the next 12 months before moving to Phase 1 implementation in December 2014.

Speaking at the launch on Wednesday, GBCSA CEO Brian Wilkinson said the tool encouraged developers to incorporate socioeconomic objectives into the design and construction phases of green construction projects, addressing societal challenges, such as unemployment, education and skills development, through the process of designing, building and, ultimately, operating buildings.

“In the same way that Green Star SA rating tools have inspired transformation towards greener practices in the property industry, we trust that this category will facilitate greater realisation of the socioeconomic upliftment potential of building projects.

“We can’t have climate change mitigation, such as green building practices, without incorporating poverty alleviation,” he said.

SEVEN CREDITS

The SEC introduced seven possible credits as its contribution to the Green Star SA rating tools, with the credits focused on employment creation, economic opportunity, skills development and training, community benefit, empowerment, safety and health, and mixed-income housing.

Under the employment creation credit, projects would be assessed on the degree to which employment creation considerations had been included in the design and construction phases, which could include the development of facilities for microenterprises, the employment of priority groups, as well as labour-intensive methodologies.

The economic opportunity credit would critique the degree to which small, medium-sized and micro enterprises were integrated into the design, construction and operational phases of the project, and could include the procurement of goods, as well as enterprise development support programmes.

The skills training and development credit would determine the level of skills development, training and provision of practical work experience opportunities during project development and operation, while the community benefit credit would assess whether or not facilities had been provided for community or public benefit as a result of the construction.

“This could include things like building a community hall, or allowing the building’s auditorium to be used for educational night classes, for example,” GBCSA special projects manager Sarah Rushmere commented.

Under the empowerment credit, recognition would be afforded to projects that were aligned to, or had made achievements in, the implementation of broad-based black economic-empowerment principles, while the safety and health credit would recognise projects that undertook to improve the primary health of construction workers and promote improved safety measures.

Lastly, the mixed-income housing credit, which only applied to multi-unit residential developments, would assess the proportion of affordable housing units provided in a development.

“Essentially, it’s the meeting of the developmental agenda and the environmental agenda,” Wilkinson noted.

ROAD TO DEVELOPMENT

The rating tool’s initial set of benchmark metrics and assessment measures were developed by a technical working group comprising private and public sector representatives, who worked in collaboration with appointed consultancy Aurecon.

These were then reviewed by a ten-person peer committee, comprising representatives from construction majors Group Five and Aveng Grinaker-LTA, as well as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the City of Johannesburg.

The SEC category pilot was being launched as a separate, optional category, and projects that achieved a rating for the SEC pilot would receive additional recognition, alongside the Green Star SA rating.

The GBCSA called on companies that were interested in testing the SEC in the pilot phase to contact the council before the end of December.