South Africa’s top rated Green Star buildings and top green building professionals were announced at the Green Star Leadership Awards 2014, held at the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) Convention, sponsored by Nedbank, in Cape Town last week.
For their stellar contributions to green building in South Africa, this year’s big winners of these coveted awards are No.1 Silo at V&A Waterfront, Atrium on 5th at Sandton City, Chilu Lombe of Solid Green Consulting and Sally Misplon of Misplon Green Building Consulting.
Brian Wilkinson, CEO of GBCSA, says: “We have the audacious goal of wanting to change the way the world is built – to inspire, design, build and operate better, greener buildings that tread lightly on our stressed planet. The winners of the Green Star Leadership Awards have stepped up and are making this happen, and doing so with extraordinary passion and flair.”
The annual Green Star Leadership awards consist of four categories. For buildings, there are the Highest Rated Building and Best Quality submission, while individual professionals are recognised as either a Rising Green Star or an Established Green Star. The awards officially named No.1 Silo at V&A Waterfront, the new head office of Allan Gray, the winner in the Highest Rated building category of the awards.
Wilkinson explains that No.1 Silo was the highest rated green building in the country during the year, earning the most points in its final Green Star SA rating. No 1 Silo at the V&A Waterfront dazzled with South Africa’s first 6-Star As-Built rating. No.1 Silo is developed by the V&A Waterfront, owned in equal parts by Growthpoint Properties and the Government Employees Pension Fund represented by the Public Investment Corporation (SOC) Limited. The Green Star SA Accredited Professional for this project was Georgina Smit from ARUP.
Runners up in this category included the National English Literature Museum developed by the Department of Public Works with Green Star SA Accredited Professional Marloes Reinink from Solid Green Consulting, followed by the Group Five head office in Waterfall City developed by Atterbury for Attacq Waterfall Investment Company with Green Star SA Accredited Professional Alison Groves from WSP. Both buildings earned a 5-Star Green Star SA design rating.
The refurbishment of the Atrium on 5th offices at Sandton City won the best quality submission award. Formerly the Sandton City Twin Towers, this project was developed by owners Liberty Group and Pareto Limited and its Green Star SA Accredited Professional was Jeanne Butler from Aurecon. It received a 4-Star Green Star SA rating. No.1 Silo at V&A Waterfront was chosen as the runner-up in this category.
For outstanding and ongoing contribution to green building in South Africa, Chilu Lombe of Solid Green Consulting was awarded the Established Green Star. Jaco Kemp of Arup was named the runner up in this category.
“This award is given to people who have continually contributed to the green building economy and are actively changing the way the world is being built,” says Wilkinson. “The accolade recognises Lombe’s leadership, passion and contribution to the green building space.”
Lombe has been involved in developing energy and thermal modelling capacity in South Africa since 2009 and worked on at least 15 Green Star SA project submissions and certifications in the same time. Lombe is also a member of the GBCSA’s education faculty and its project assessment panel.
Sally Misplon of Misplon Green Building Consulting was named this year’s Rising Green Star. Etienne Terblanche of PJCarew Consulting was the category’s runner up.
Misplon has acted as Green Star SA Accredited Professional for eight buildings to date, including the first building to be submitted for an Existing Building Performance rating, which uses a tool that she helped to develop. She’s also in training to become an assessor for the tool and is on its technical advisory group.
“The future is indeed bright with professionals like these working together for a better built environment,” Wilkinson notes.
In the last seven years the GBCSA has certified a million square metres of commercial space, and has another million in the wings. It has trained almost 6 000 professionals and nearly 1 000 of these have become Green Star SA Accredited Professionals. GBCSA has over a 1 000 corporate members and a reach of about 10 000 green building enthusiasts.
Wilkinson points out that this is thanks, in large part, to the Green Building Leader Network - an exclusive community of outstanding corporate citizens comprising Growthpoint, Liberty and Standard Bank. “Through their support of the GBCSA these companies capacitate the council’s goal of changing the way the world is built, for the better,” says Wilkinson.
