Property development company Growthpoint Properties’ Greenfield Industrial Park, in Cape Town, has been awarded South Africa’s first-ever Green Star South Africa (SA) rating for an industrial property.
Greenfield received a 4-Star custom industrial as-built Green Star SA certification from the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA).
“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,” says Growthpoint Propertiesindustrial division director Engelbert Binedell.
“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 SAcertification,” notes Growthpoint development manager Riaan Munnik.
Growthpoint’s green building consultants were able, in collaboration with the GBCSA, to develop a custom new build certification for industrial facilities, which is a progressive approach to ensuring more building types can be certified by the GBCSA.
Greenfield provides an innovative green industrial space. It achieves this with features including sustainable energy from solar photovoltaic panels, water-wise landscaping, waterless urinals, recycling, and low-energy light fittings that complement its smart design, which uses natural light to save on lighting costs.
Setting new benchmarks for sustainability in the South African industrial sector, Greenfield achieved full scores for energy efficiency in its rating. It will be a key pilot project for net-zero energy buildings in the country, because the base building produces as much of its own energy as it consumes over a year.
The 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 buildingcertified homes in South Africa by 2020
