Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa Real Estate Investor Magazine - June 2017 | Page 43

Both van Antwerpen and Braune believe that
the South African commercial property sector has
reached a tipping point. This is backed up by the
Dodge Data Analytics World Green Building Trends
2016 SmartMarket Report that states: “South Africa
has the highest green building share currently of any
country in the study and could become a leader in the
green building sector in the next three years.”
Their presentations highlighted that one of the
fundamental drivers of this growth is that commercial
developers have recognised that building properties
with sustainable and renewable energy sources not
only makes good business sense, but future proofs
both the structure and their businesses. “It makes
sense for us to help our tenants to save energy and
the related expenses,” van Antwerpen said. Justin
Smith of Woolworths also pointed out that even
when people are under financial pressure as the case
is in South Africa at the moment, it makes sense to
implement sustainability measures which will help to
save money in the long run.
The importance of improving energy
efficiency in the building sector
Faith Mkhacwa, CSIR Programme Manager for the
Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) Project at the
National Cleaner Production Centre ‒ South Africa
(NCPC-SA), who moderated the session said: “When
we started the IEE project the focus was on energy
savings for mining and industry, as the typically more
energy intensive companies, but the project now also
includes commercial buildings in its scope. If no
action is taken to improve energy efficiency in the
building sector, energy demand is expected to rise by
50% by 2050, according to the International Energy
Agency (IEA) report Transition to Sustainable
Buildings. Unless we are deliberate in the way we
design, construct and renovate buildings, we could be
building to inefficient energy use for a very long time.
Energy saving and efficiency need to work together
and for that to happen, property owners and tenants
need to work together to ensure that they are energy
efficient and sustainable.”
According to van Antwerpen, the South African
commercial property development sector’s renewable
energy drive is expanding at a rapid rate due to the
fact that the load profile of the buildings match
that of solar production. He said: “Both peak in the
middle of the day, which means there is no battery
storage requirement, as all the electricity is used
instantaneously.” He also sees renewable energy
becoming more and more affordable, which will
increase the rate of uptake even further.
www.reimag.co.za
When one looks at the volatility of grid power and
the growing scarcity of non-renewable resources like
water – especially in South Africa – while there may
be a percept