Comments Engelbert Binedell, Growthpoint Properties Industrial Division director: “We are delighted Greenfield has become the country’s very first certified green industrial property. Growthpoint is proud to be part of creating a greener, more sustainable built environment for South Africa.”
Congratulating Growthpoint on its achievement, Brian Wilkinson, CEO of the GBCSA, comments: “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.”
Designed with sustainability in mind, Greenfield is an efficient, upmarket industrial park on a prime 3.4-hectare site in Airport Industria, near Cape Town International Airport. It includes 21,000m2 of space, designed to meet the needs of modern business. It is the landmark redevelopment of the former Wasteman site.
Riaan Munnik, development manager at Growthpoint Properties, explains: “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.”
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. 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.
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.
Greenfield provides innovative green industrial space 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. 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. For GBCSA, Growthpoint is a key partner in achieving these commitments.
Binedell says: “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.”
“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,” he says.
