The V&A Waterfront was awarded five Green Star Ratings from the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) last week.
The five ratings bring the number of Green Star ratings in the precinct on various buildings to 12 at the V&A Waterfront.
Speaking at a handover ceremony held at The Watershed on Thursday March 15, Manfred Braune, executive director and chief technical officer of the GBCSA, said: “GBCSA congratulates the V&A Waterfront and the professionals involved with these buildings on this fantastic achievement, and making the V&A Waterfront one of the greenest precincts on the continent.
“The V&A precinct attests to the power of long-term planning and how everyone can be brought along through gradual changes. It is a beacon of future possibilities.”
The first ever Six-Star Green Star – Office v1 As Built Rating in South Africa was awarded to No.1 Silo (home to Allan Gray) in June 2014. Other Green Star achievements in the precinct include:
A Six-Star Green Star – Office As Built Rating for No. 5 Silo (a multi-tenanted commercial building, including PwC), making it one of only four buildings in South Africa to have achieved a this rating.
A Six-Star Green Star – Existing Building Performance v1 rating for the Watershed, which houses the craft market.
A Five-Star Green Star – Custom Hotel Design rating for the No.6 Silo which houses the new Radisson Red Hotel in the Silo District.
Two Four-Star Green Star – Existing Building Performance v1 ratings were also awarded for the West Quay Offices on Port Road and the Granger Bay Court offices on Beach Road.
Explaining the V&A Waterfront’s sustainability philosophy, CEO David Green said: “Sustainability underpins our entire development strategy and lies at the heart of everything we do.
“As a business we are pragmatic and commercial, but it is also our responsibility to ensure that the legacy we build today does not negatively impact on the future.
“Our buildings are an important asset to the V&A Waterfront and we take pride in preserving our natural environment. With this in mind, we had produced an energy model for our new developments, which includes No. 5 and No. 6 Silos, that uses the district sea water cooling plant to heat and cool the building with a renewable energy source, allowing us to save energy by 65% when compared to other buildings. This translates into a significant reduction in our environmental footprint by using less water and drawing less power from the grid”.
Green Star is a points-basedgreen building rating system that evaluates whether the building incorporates global best practices in sustainability, and allocates points across nine categories, among them management, energy, innovation and water.
