Water, Sewage & Effluent July August 2018 | Page 26

“Everything about development today is
about sustainability and about energy-wise
innovation, water-saving technology,
heat-reducing aspects, and the like.”
Nicholas Stopforth, Amdec Property Developments
initiatives including refuse recycling, water-saving devices,
low-energy LED lighting, and rainwater harvesting.
With water scarcity being the new normal for South Africa,
developers must implement water-wise strategies from the
ground up, including being designed to harvest rainwater to
reduce the load on municipal supply.
“There’s huge benefit in executing water-saving measures
at the construction stage, rather than retrofitting. Not only
is it better to have systems in place at the start, but it saves
money in the long run,” Stopforth explains.
However, South Africa is still at the initial stages of adopting
green building standards, Kuzwayo says.
“The problems encountered include the common
perception that green buildings are expensive. They can
be; but they don’t have to be,” he told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation and adds that changes in how buildings are
created must be led by governments “for the desired scale
and impact”.
“Ultimately, we need to reduce our impact. It’s better for
business, and it’s better for the planet,” concludes Stopforth,
while Kuzwayo adds: “If government leads in constructing
and operating energy-efficient buildings, it will propel the
adoption drastically.” u
Sources:
• Thomson Reuters Foundation: https://af.reuters.com/
article/topNews/idAFKCN1IT0NY-OZATP
• www.c40.org/
• www.globalcovenantofmayors.org/
“Our target is to work with the four cities to bring policies,
such as better building codes or more ambitious planning
requirements, into effect by the end of 2020,” he said. Building
specialists from Sustainable Energy Africa will work with
teams in the target South African cities to make that happen,
he said.
With the rise of ‘smart cities’, increasingly, developers are
motivated to find means of creating a ‘green urban jungle’,
bringing nature to the concrete jungle.
Nicholas Stopforth, managing director of Amdec Property
Developments, says green spaces are essential for people to
feel safe and secure in an environment.
However, by definition, ‘green’ can mean many things.
Together with the visual green drive, to achieve a Green Star
certification, buildings must be energy efficient, comfortable,
handle waste responsibly, and contain spaces that contribute
to the health and well-being of their users. Green Building
Council South Africa (GBCSA) has certified over 300 Green
Star buildings since 2009.
Globally, developers are pressured to drastically minimise
water usage and incorporate eco-friendly technologies that
will benefit the planet in the long-term.
The effort “can shift paradigms in planning, design,
construction, and building operation,” says Thulani Kuzwayo,
a marketer with the GBCSA, who is also chair of World Green
Building Council’s African regional network. Because many
buildings are made to last up to 50–100 years, building them
for efficiency can result in huge savings in climate-changing
emissions over time, Kuzwayo points out.
“Modern trends in development and construction are
predominantly focused on issues relating to sustainability,”
shares Stopforth. “Residents and investors want to know
what is being done to reduce impact on the environment.
Everything about development today is about sustainability
and about energy-wise innovation, water-saving technology,
heat-reducing aspects, and the like. And when you use
sustainable technology, you also reduce the cost of
occupation long term and obtain a competitive edge.”
Sustainability and eco-friendly innovation are key focus
areas of Amdec’s developments, with green building
Amdec development’s Harbour Arch is designed to bring the green jungle to the concrete jungle.
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Water Sewage & Effluent July/August 2018