South Africa’s property sector increasingly embracing green building

2nd May 2014

By: Anine Kilian

Contributing Editor Online

  

Font size: - +

South Africa’s green-building sector has accomplished two major milestones this year: celebrating its fiftieth Green Star SA certification rating and the election of Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) execu- tive chairperson Bruce Kerswill as the chair- person of the World Green Building Council (WGBC).

Kerswill states that having the GBCSA as the chair of the WGBC enables South Africa to broaden its network, raises the GBCSA’s profile and should enable it to help influence the global agenda.

“South Africa has been very active in WGBC activities – we are one of the more active green building councils and we have demonstrated that we have the capacity to add value,” he tells Engineering News.

Old Mutual Property MD Peter Levett believes the appointment reflects the progress the domestic council has made over the last few years and says it should also provide South Africa with access to international resources and information.

Further evidence of the momentum gained by South Africa’s green-building movement is recent confirmation that 50 Green Star SA certifications have been made over the last six years.

This milestone was marked in April at an event held in Johannesburg, where it was announced that a further 150 projects are currently in the Green Star SA registration pipeline.

“In South Africa, certified new green buildings currently cover nearly one-million square metres and savings in electricity, water consumption and waste disposal at these buildings are having a significant impact on reducing the construction sector’s carbon footprint, helping in the global battle to combat climate change and conserve precious natural resources,” says Kerswill.

Developers of the 50 certified projects expect that their buildings will result in combined yearly savings of 76-million kilowatt hours, the amount of electricity needed by 5 300 households for a year; yearly carbon emissions savings of 115-million kilograms, the equivalent to having 28 000 fewer cars on the road; and savings of 124-million litres of water a year – sufficient to sustain 34 000 households for a year.

“Reaching 50 certifications illustrates the commitment the South African commercial property sector has shown towards resource efficiency and climate change abatement, while creating healthier and more productive environments for us in which to work and live,” GBCSA CEO Brian Wilkinson notes.

He points out that the GBCSA could not have achieved the success it has to date without the support of the major property market participants – companies that have pioneered more sustainable building techniques and materials.

Globally, the built environment is responsible for one-third of all carbon emissions and, with global warming – a very real concern that affects everyone on the planet – a shift in focus to green building is something that should be foremost in everyone’s mind – from government and developers to the average person on the street.

The mainstreaming of green building has been confirmed in research conducted by McGraw-Hill, which indicates that 51% of South African firms expect to be building green by 2015 – most notably in the commercial markets. This suggests that outside investors, developers and building owners will have an ongoing, important role to play in the green building groundswell.

Bottom-Line Benefits

“Going green is not just about the environment, the bottom-line benefits of building and operating green buildings are particularly important – considering South Africa’s rising energy costs and water scarcity – as they are coupled with lower risks, improvements to employee productivity and, ultimately, better investment returns and higher property valuations,” says Wilkinson.

He adds that the GBCSA is thrilled by the uptake in green building projects in South Africa. In the last few months, the number of buildings that have been certified, or which have applied for certification, has increased exponentially, with 20 buildings being certified in 2013.

The GBCSA is confident that this upward spike will continue as an ongoing trend as increased market demand and clear financial rewards, as well as mounting government regulations and shareholder pressures, provide multiple incentives to own and occupy high-performance green buildings.

Kerswill states that the recent fifth ‘Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’ report reinforces the negative impact that climate change will have – and is having – on our civilisation.

“There is a need to urgently reduce carbon emissions. As we celebrate our significant achievements, we recognise that we still have a long way to go,” he explains.

Levett adds that there is greater awareness of the benefits of green building design and the associated technologies, as well as an increased understanding of how initial expenditure will affect long-term savings.

“Advance in green building technology and design have increased sustainability and efficiency, and they are becoming more cost effective than they were ten years ago,” he says, adding that a four-star green building design is rapidly becoming an accepted base building.

Kerswill agrees that the South African property development sector has embraced green building and that the sector is currently at a point where no new major commercial development will be built without getting a Green Star SA rating.

“Agreed standards and benchmarks for green building enable us to objectively assess just how ‘green’ a building is. Rating systems provide a menu of green measures that can be used in the design, construction and management of a building to make it more sustainable,” he says.

By contrast, before the GBCSA was formed, practitioners did not know what a green building was, adding that the Green Star SA rating systems have set the standards for green building and created a platform for people to engage in the topic of green building.

“Although we have only rated 50 buildings, there are 150 buildings registered for Green Star ratings in the pipeline and there is a lot of activity behind the scenes, and as we go forward, we are moving from a new development market, which comprises only 2% of all buildings, to addressing the existing 98% of the building market,” he notes.

Engineering consulting firm WSP’s commercial director, Simon Berry, says domestic devel- opers have taken account of the economic performance of green buildings elsewhere in the world. “[They] have noted that the financial returns, either through the capital value of the building or the rental rates, are significantly better than those of traditional buildings,” he says.

Berry adds that developers are aiming to achieve at least a four-star green rating with regard to new building projects and that five-star ratings are becoming more common – three years ago, constructing a four-star building was considered a major achievement.

Currently, nine government buildings have been certified, including the four-star South African National Roads Agency corporate head office and the four-star Government Communications and Information Services head office, both in Pretoria, Gauteng, and the five-star Sisonke district offices, in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal.

The Department of Environmental Affairs head office, in Pretoria, is also one of only three six-star buildings that have been certified to date in South Africa.

Rating Tools

The GBCSA has three types of Green Star SA rating tools that cover new buildings, existing buildings and interior fit-outs.

A suite of four tools covers different building typologies for new buildings –offices, retail centres, multi-unit residential buildings and public and education buildings.

The Existing Buildings Performance Tool and the Interiors Tool, both of which are currently in the pilot phase, focus on transforming the remaining 98% of South Africa’s existing buildings stock.

The Energy and Water Benchmark Tool enables building owners to ‘know their number’ – identifying their buildings, water and energy consumption and comparing this to the industry average.

The Socio-Economic Category Tool, currently in the pilot phase, has enabled the GBCSA to move beyond green building to include more socioeconomic factors – a first for developing countries.

“The next thrust is the mass market, which is the existing buildings. We are not really going to make a huge impact on the greenhouse gas issue until we really start addressing those buildings,” Kerswill says.

He adds that green buildings are better to work in because they promote better health, as more natural light and fresh air are used, and tenants want to demonstrate their sustainability credentials.

“The GBCSA has started scoping for a Precinct Tool, which includes considering whole areas instead of individual buildings, such as housing developments or even a new city,” he says.

Levett points out that South Africa compares favourably on a global level in terms of the application of green building technology and the type of developments undertaken, but can still learn from more mature markets such as the US, the UK and Australia.
“Old Mutual sponsors the Socio-Economic Category Tool, which extends the sustainability into social issues, which we feel is an important development,” he says.

Skills Challenge

Green buildings incorporate newer technologies, which require a higher level of skills to operate. The industry needs to upskill to deliver and maintain a sustainable green building base. Certain high-end technologies are still quite expensive, impacting on development returns, while South Africa still relies on the environmental standards set by other countries.

“When it comes to energy efficiency, there is often a stalemate, which we see mostly in places where the landlord has no interest in energy efficiency. The person simply passes the bill onto the tenant, leaving no room for incentives for tenants to invest any capital because they do not own the building,” Berry says.

He adds that what really drives most green building councils worldwide are the threats posed by greenhouse-gas emissions and climate change.

Kerswill cites the cost issue as the main area of weakness in the South African green building sector. People perceive costs to be high, but, in reality, they are not. The perception of the cost factor was researched worldwide and public perception is that when a green building is built, costs increase by 16%, while the actual increase is 1.5%.

The South African government’s commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 34% by 2020 is a target that Berry does not think can be reached.

“It is going to be difficult because it was set at a time when there was a big buy into carbon reduction worldwide, but the global financial crisis that started in 2008 resulted in everyone focusing on economics rather than sustainability,” explains Berry, who does not think that South Africa has made sufficient progress towards the carbon reduction goal yet.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION