Green Building South Africa Develops Rating Tools

The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) has developed rating tools that will be used to provide the property industry with an objective measurement for green buildings and to recognize and reward environmental leadership.

Based on the Australian Green Building Council tools, the Green Star SA ratings tools will be segmented to reflect specific market sectors including office, retail, multi-unit residential and industrial, among others, according to the GBCSA website.

The new system will establish a common language and standard of measurement for green buildings as well as create awareness of of green building benefits and to help reduce the environmental impact of development.

This development could prove to be an important milestone for GBCSA since it joined the World Green Building Council as its 13th full member in October 2008, becoming the first and only national green building council in Africa to be accepted into WGBC, after winning approval to join the body a meeting of the global group in Melbourne, Australia, earlier in the year.

The World GBC membership roster now includes the green building councils from Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Emirates, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The international council also maintains a list of “emerging members” for councils being vetted for full acceptance.

Green Star SA tools were developed through a consensus based process led by technical experts and industry practitioners from a cross-section of the relevant market sector.

Green Star SA-Office was the first tool to be developed and published in pilot form for public comment in July 2008. The full version 1(Green Star SA – Office v1) was released at the Green Building Council of South Africa Convention & Exhibition ’08 held between November 2 and 4, 2008.

Following the finalization of the office tool, the Green Building Council will soon announce the rolling out of tools for other building types. For any given tool, 70-80% of the credits are core credits which will be common to all tools.

The order of the tool roll out program will be dependent upon market demand and the availability of sponsorship for each individual tool, according to GBCSA sources.

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