Growthpoint Properties’ Greenfield Industrial Park in Cape Town has been awarded South Africa’s first ever Green Star SA rating for an industrial property.
Designed with sustainability in mind, Greenfield is a quality, efficient and upmarket industrial park on a prime 3.4ha site in Airport Industria, near Cape Town International Airport.“Growthpoint is proud to be part of creating a greener, more sustainable built environment for South Africa.”.
In a milestone achievement for green building in South Africa, Binedell says Greenfield received a 4-Star Custom Industrial As-Built Green Star SA certification from the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA).
He says Growthpoint owns or co-owns the largest portfolio of Green Star SA certified buildings of any company in South Africa, comprising 50 properties so far. It holds an entire quarter of South Africa’s 200 office, retail and properties independently certified to date.
“Greenfield is the latest property to join Growthpoint’s portfolio of Green Star SA rated buildings,” says Binedell.
Congratulating Growthpoint on its achievement, Brian Wilkinson, CEO of the GBCSA, says earning South Africa’s first Custom Industrial As Built Green Star SA rating for Greenfield continues Growthpoint’s track record of exceptional green building leadership.
“Growthpoint’s commitment to sustainability and resource efficiency has introduced innovation to the sector, and can be seen in the sheer number of certified properties in its portfolio,” says Wilkinson.
Designed with sustainability in mind, Greenfield is a quality, efficient and upmarket industrial park on a prime 3.4ha site in Airport Industria, near Cape Town International Airport.
In a milestone achievement for green building in South Africa, Binedell says Greenfield received a 4-Star Custom Industrial As-Built Green Star SA certification from the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA).“Right from the start, we prioritised sustainability for Greenfield. As we progressed with the project, we realised it had the potential to achieve a ground-breaking Green Star SA certification,” says Riaan Munnik, Development Manager at Growthpoint Properties.
Growthpoint’s green building consultants for Greenfield, Sally Misplon from Misplon Consulting and Francois Retief from Sow & Reap, examined this opportunity further.
“Collaborating with GBCSA, they jointly developed a custom new build certification for the industrial facility, which is a progressive approach to ensuring more building types can be certified by the GBCSA,” says Binedell.
The custom process uses around 80% of existing Green Star SA tools, making minor changes to allow application to other sectors for which tools have not yet been developed. To ensure robustness and relevance, the custom process goes through an independent peer review before it is finalised as a rating tool for the project.
“The Greenfield project was a wonderful opportunity to apply this process, which proved successful due to, among other things, the Green Star experience that Misplon and Retief added to the process,” says Binedell.
“In addition, Architect Stuart Anderson from Loudon Perry Anderson Architects played a significant role in ensuring the green building rating was achieved through architectural design that incorporates many sustainable design principles.”
True to its name, Binedell says Greenfield provides innovative green industrial space.
“It achieves this with features including sustainable energy from solar photovoltaic panels, water-wise landscaping, waterless urinals, recycling, low-energy light fittings that complement its smart design, which uses natural light to save on lighting costs,” he says.
“What’s more, it creates a healthy and appealing working environment with breakaway areas for staff, as well as shower facilities for cyclists and runners.”
Setting new benchmarks for sustainability in the South African industrial sector, Greenfield achieved full scores for energy efficiency for its rating. It will be a key pilot project for net-zero energy buildings in the country, because the base building (excluding tenant loads) produces as much of its own energy as is consumed by it over the course of a year.
GBCSA has pledged to introduce a net-zero building certification scheme, and is targeting 2 500 commercial green building certifications and 10 000 residential green building certified homes in South Africa by 2020. It made this commitment at the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP21) in December 2015.
“We constantly pursue energy- and water-efficient projects to make our buildings more economical, sustainable and attractive to clients. With Greenfield, we have created a landmark industrial property that is respectful of the environment and saves its occupants money,” says Binedell.
He says Growthpoint recognises the significant benefits of green building, and is committed to driving it forward in its own substantial portfolio of industrial properties, including taking the lessons from its work at Greenfield and applying them to other industrial properties across South Africa in future.
“Green building is the future of industrial property. Green buildings provide lower total occupancy costs for tenants, are proven to deliver higher returns for owners, and are designed to have positive impacts on their users, their surrounding communities and the environment,” says Binedell.
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