Green building council to launch retail rating tool this month
Apr 15 2010
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The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) would launch the Green Star SA rating tool for new retail centre developments within the next two weeks, and expected interested parties to start registering for certification of proposed shopping centres by the end of April.

"We are already receiving expressions of interest from retail projects which are wanting to register, and get rated later on in the year, so its quite exciting," GBCSA CEO Nicola Douglas told Engineering News Online.

The Green Star SA - Retail Centre Pilot Tool was launched at the council's yearly conference in October 2009, and had since undergone the pilot and public comment phase. The tool would assign a Green Star SA rating to the base building and its services, on the basis of the design potential of retail centres, and was based on the existing Australian Green Star - Retail Centre version one tool.

The Green Star SA rating tools were developed to provide the property industry with an objective measurement for green buildings and to recognise and reward environmental leadership in the property industry. Each tool reflects a different market sector, and the retail tool is the second tool to be established in South Africa, after the office tool, which was launched in 2008.

The Nedbank phase two head office in Sandton is currently the only office building in South Africa to have undergone, and received a Four Star Green Star SA - Office Design version one rating.

The GBCSA website noted that a further seven office developments were registered to be rated, thus having declared their intent to pursue formal certification and having started the process.

The council would continue developing tools for other sectors of the property industry, and hoped to obtain funding for the development of a multi-unit residential development-rating tool. This would also make it easier to develop a mixed-use development tool at a later stage, as these developments consisted of a combination of office, residential and retail space.

Work on an existing building rating tool was continuing in parallel to these, and an operational performance tool for existing buildings has also emerged as something that is urgently required.

In fact, owing to demand from property portfolio owners and manager, and facility managers, the GBCSA, together with trainers from US-based Green Building Services in Oregon, will be conducting a ‘greening existing buildings' training course in April. The course would focus on identifying the low-cost or no-cost improvements that could be implemented immediately, and how to establish a plan and schedule for implementing them, be they mechanical, plumbing or operational upgrades. Also, how to measure and track whether progress is being made.

Source: Engineering News Online, 8 April 2010