Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa September 2014 | Page 19

UPFRONT

Bringing Green Building home
Green buildings are energy and water efficient, emit
less carbon dioxide and make good use of space and
design, all of which have been shown by studies to be
good for employee productivity, health and morale.
“We are moving out of the industrial revolution and
into the sustainability revolution and everyone needs to
embrace this move,” says Brian Wilkinson, CEO of the
Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA).
While ‘going green’ and green building is increasingly
in focus on an international level, the GBCSA and its
Green Building Convention in September is putting
the spotlight on Africa and bringing green building and
sustainable practises home. This event will showcase
how green building has and can change lives on our
very own continent, and how in some ways, Africa is
leading in the green building space.
“Green building is now firmly on the agenda of many
boardroom meetings in the African property industry,
and reaching into a growing number of countries,
the green building movement is demonstrating with
increasing confidence and credibility that we can take
on, often at minimal cost, the big issues of our time:
excess energy consumption and related CO2 emissions
from burning carbon fuels; pollution of air, water and

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land; depletion of natural resources; and disposal of
waste,” says Wilkinson.
And South Africa is leading the way. High energy
consumption, environmental stewardship and lower
operating costs are among the top reasons for the spike
in the development of environmentally-friendly and
‘green’ buildings in the country, as is evident in the latest
McGraw-Hill Construction’s SmartMarket Report,
which suggests that the number of green buildings in
South Africa is growing faster than in other parts of
the world. This is according to Arthur Chien, VP of
Talesun Energy, who says that the environmentallyfriendly building trend is rapidly gaining popularity
in the country as the industry starts to recognise that
the development of sustainable buildings is key to
environmental sustainability and lower operational
costs.
“In South Africa, the benefits of adopting energy
efficiency initiatives are even higher in comparison to
other regions due to the massive impending hikes in
electricity tariffs. This has also had an impact on the
development of green buildings, which we believe
could soon become standard practice in the country,
which will of course contribute positively towards the
environment.” Chien says that building owners and

September 2014 SA Real Estate Investor

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