PARTNER NEWS
The 18 675m2 North Park in the Black River Park office park
in Cape Town has become the first building in the country
to be awarded an “existing building” certification from
the Green Building Council SA (GBCSA), under the newly
launched Existing Building Performance (EBP) pilot tool.
Black River Park, owned by Leaf Capital and Joubert
Rabie, has made it their mission to secure green
certification for the entire 75 000m2 office park – one
of the largest business parks in the Western Cape. The
park, consisting of a North, Central and South Park,
is home to more than 110 companies, including the
GBCSA’s head office and SAPOA’s Western Cape offices.
impact on the environment.
The EBP rating tool, sponsored by Nedbank Corporate
Property Finance, was launched by the council
in August 2013. It recognises excellence in the
performance of existing or older buildings where
green building innovations have been introduced to
make the building more sustainable, reducing their
Black River Park has been at t he forefront of
sustainable commercial real estate for over a
decade and this certification confirms the strength
of the management team and their commitment to
sustainability. The EBP certification of a building
within the park marks the completion of the first stage
of Black River Park’s drive to
get all the office buildings at
the park certified.
As part of the GBCSA’s first-ever “existing building”
rating, the North Park was recognised with a 5 Star
Green Star SA EBP certification.
26
africandesignmagazine.com
Up until recently GBCSA’s Green Star rating tools have
focused largely on the design and construction of new
buildings and major refurbishments – all with a design
and construction elements. This had very little focus
on ongoing building operations and management. The
suite of current new building and major retrofit tools
were aimed at only about 2% of building stock, while
the newly released Green Star SA EBP tool addresses
the remaining 98% of the building stock.
Black River Park, together
with Misplon Green Building
Consulting, is now in
the process of preparing
submission packs to secure
green ratings for the
remaining seven buildings.
Some of the green initiatives
that have been undertaken
for the building at the
park to secure the EBP
certification include:
• The installation of the
Southern Hemisphere’s
largest rooftop Photo Voltaic