Young environmental visionaries from the University of Cape Town took first place in the Growthpoint Greenovate Awards for the second year.
The awards recognise innovative solutions for the property industry to environmental challenges.
Now in its second year, the awards programme, an initiative by Growthpoint Properties in association with the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA), encourages students of the built environment to discover, explore and invent ways to live more sustainably.
Students were challenged to come up with ideas for any property-related project that makes the way we live greener and our environmental footprint lighter.
The winners were announced at a gala dinner in Sandton Central with keynote speaker, trend analyst Dion Chang of Flux Trends, who warned: “If you don’t take the time to think proactively, you will increasingly find yourself reacting to your environment rather than influencing it.”
The UCT team of Cédric Fournier and Priscilla Nthai, with supervisors Saul Nurick and Abby Street, were named the winners of the Greenovate Awards 2016. They focused on the perceptions of occupants in office buildings that contain green building features and initiatives.
This team of outstanding young green innovators received R30,000 in prize money. They will also be fully sponsored to attend the GBCSA’s 2017 Green Building Convention in Cape Town where they will present their research.
The University of the Witwatersrand team of Nthabiseng Makgabo and Bongiwe Dlamini, supervised by Samuel Azasu, took second place with their comparative analysis of the factors that influence the choice between green and conventional buildings in selected nodes in Gauteng. The team won R15,000 and tickets to the Green Building Convention in 2017.
The third place went to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Lungela Gcwabaza, supervised by Gerrit Crafford. He investigated obstacles to effective implementation of strategy within quantity surveying firms as a method for enhancing long-term business sustainability. He won R10,000 and tickets to the Green Building Convention 2017.
Werner van Antwerpen, head of sustainability at Growthpoint Properties, explains: “By nurturing innovation for a greener, healthier, more sustainable environment, everyone wins.
More information from Werner van Antwerpen, Tel: 011 944 6598 / www.growthpoint.co.za
