The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) awarded Cape Town-based shopping centre Canal Walk a 5-Star Green Star Existing Building Performance v1 rating earlier in August.
The centre, which is co-owned by Hyprop Investments and Ellerine Bros, is the first super regional shopping centre in South Africa to be awarded a 5-star rating by the GBCSA.
The rating, according to Canal Walk’s owners, attests to the operations and management of Canal Walk being efficient and maintaining an enhanced performance.
Canal Walk achieved the rating for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions aimed at achieving high performance in management, indoor environmental quality, energy, transport, water, land use and ecology, as well as emissions.
Some of the key elements that make Canal Walk a sustainable building are its replacement of hazardous cleaning chemicals with environment-friendly products and reducing its waste to landfill, which includes installing a 40 t in-vessel composter to handle food waste.
Canal Walk Shopping Centre has cut its energy consumption by 34% against a 2009 baseline and its water consumption is 44% more efficient than the industry average.
Hyprop CEO Morné Wilken says, “this is a great achievement by the team working hard to ensure that Canal Walk is a safe, green space for people to connect and be part of a community. We continuously strive to manage our assets in an environmentally responsible and resource-efficient manner throughout their life-cycles.”