carbon reduction targets and revised building
energy efficiency standards. The Green Star
rating and accreditation system has provided
excellent guiding principles. However, existing
Green Star tools only allow certification
of single building types – i.e. commercial
office, retail, multi-unit residential, and public
and educational buildings.
“Where before it may have been difficult to
entrench sustainability into projects that did not fit
into the Green Star rating criteria, this progression
to having a customisable tool that enables mixed-
use developments to use the Green Star rating
accreditation will allow robust sustainability in
the built space to be applied across the board,”
adds Groves.
To achieve the Custom Mixed Use rating for
Menlyn Maine Central Square, WSP’s Green by
Design team assessed all the current available
ratings tools before deciding to make use of the
Public and Education (P&E) Buildings Design
Rating tool – as its structure offered the greatest
semblance for what was required. The P&E tool
offered added flexibility for adapting certain criteria
to focus on different morphologies – and define
how credit should be allocated for the Green
Star rating that would more accurately reflect
the building.
In addition to adapting the necessary criteria,
the custom tool also allowed the incorporation
of aspects such as ‘green leases’ to ensure that
tenants can be held responsible for their own
energy use – and particularly where this may
be outside of the landlord’s control or influence.
Groves says, “Green leases are growing in
importance as the first step in changing mind-
Central Square
sets towards sustainability and getting buy-in
from tenants for retail, commercial or residential
use, alike.”
Central Square acts as the heart of the new
urban centre that is Menlyn Maine. The driving
principles embodied in this new urbanism are
certain to act as a benchmark in similar mixed use
developments throughout South Africa.
43