JSE-listed South African real estate investment trust, Redefine Properties, recently certified/re-certified 40 buildings in their property portfolio under the Green Building Council South Africa’s (GBCSA) Green Star Existing Building Performance (EBP) rating tool.
This is the largest bulk Green Star EBP certification from any one property developer to date and represents a major milestone for green commercial property in South Africa.
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Redefine’s diversified property portfolio, with a value of around R75 billion, includes a mix of retail, office, and industrial space throughout South Africa, and is complemented by retail and logistics property investments in Poland. The recent Green Star accolades include 16 office Existing Building Performance (EBP) re-certifications, and 24 new EBP certifications across Gauteng, Cape Town, Kwazulu-Natal, and Polokwane.
Typical sustainability features across these projects include:
- Indoor environmental quality testing to recognise the monitoring and control of indoor pollutants and thus help sustain the comfort and wellbeing of building occupants
- Development and implementation of a Building Operations Manual, Building Users’ Guide and Preventative Maintenance Management Plan, Landscaping Management Plan, Hardscape Management Plan and Pest Management Plan
- Development of a Solid Waste and Materials Management Policy to encourage sustainable waste management and recycling
- Green Cleaning Policy in line with the Green Star requirements
- A green procurement plan compiled and implemented to encourage and guide the property and facilities management teams to select the most sustainable products available on the market
- Publication of green operational guidelines for tenants
- Glare control devices are mandatory in occupied spaces to reduce the discomfort from glare and direct sunlight
- Each building’s energy and water consumption benchmarked against other buildings of the same building type to encourage the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the burden on potable water supply and wastewater systems, associated with the use of energy in the building operations
- A Green Travel Plan introduced to encourage the use of alternative modes of transport to and from work
“Property owners, such as Redefine, help to support market transformation by being pioneers and leaders in the space when they ‘walk the talk’ and commit significantly to certification,” says GBCSA head of technical, Georgina Smit.
“EBP certifications extend far beyond just energy and water performance management to encompass a much broader and holistic approach to sustainability management at an operational level. As such, they represent a commitment to a wide range of sustainability issues by a developer.”
Sustainability consultant and Green Star accredited professional for the project, Sally Misplon, explains that there are numerous advantages for property developers willing to certify many buildings at once.
These include aligning each building’s operations with the overall sustainable objectives of the fund, building capacity within the fund for continued implementation, economies of scale in implementation, and reporting of overall portfolio performance (linked to ESG goals).
"Independently verified green building certifications, such as GBCSA’s Green Star certification suite, appear to be linked to improved financial performance of properties, according to the most recent MSCI Green Property Index results.
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Covid-19’s requirement for healthy indoor workspaces has also increased the demand for green office space, and there are benefits to be gained for developers who choose to commit to certifying their portfolios.
Smit adds that “certified offices, in comparison to their non-certified equivalents, are attracting higher tenancies, net income per square meter, and lower risk ratings.”
These benefits signal a growing appetite for all things green and sustainable in the property market, and also in the greater global business context. Essentially, greener office spaces not only offer healthier work environments for employees, but they mitigate risks due to increasing energy costs, and potential future water shortages (to name a few potential climate-related crises).
The EBP rating tool measures a building’s operational performance over a 12-month period. Covid-19’s unexpected arrival, and the subsequent lockdown in March 2020, posed some challenges to the measuring of the information.
Misplon explains, “The EBP rating tool has some minimum requirements in terms of occupancy density where each building is required to be occupied at a minimum of 70% during the performance period. As a result, GBCSA issued some Covid-19 guidelines to assist projects teams in finding a way around this which still gave credits meaning during these different times.
"For example, the most recent reliable and accurate ‘pre covid’ set of energy and water data was used to benchmark the buildings energy and water performance, and adaptions were made to certain indoor air quality audit’s criteria to make it applicable to Covid-19 times, all while keeping the original intent and integrity of the rating tool in place.”
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"Covid-19 aside, processing several certifications simultaneously, is no mean feat. Timing and planning are critical," Misplon says.
“Staying on top of data collection and tracking everything well is pertinent to successful and high-quality submissions.” As is support from the technical team at GBCSA. Due to meticulous teamwork, a high number of the projects received their certification after round 1 assessment.
"Significant portfolio certification, such as Redefine’s recent move, acts as a catalyst to other property owners who operate in the same space."
Anelisa Keke, Redefine’s Head of ESG, says Redefine sees sustainability as a critical enabler of value creation, and the company is proud to be making such important strides towards a green future.
“Redefine has firmly embedded ESG into our business strategy to help manage and reduce social and environmental concerns, such as climate change. The social, environmental and economic benefits of green buildings are critical to creating a more sustainable operating context.
"Among others, green buildings contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while also reducing adverse environmental impacts with efficient use of water, energy and other natural resources. The next step in our journey will be the move to net zero buildings, meaning we want to have enough renewable energy to meet our consumption requirements.
"This achievement shows that we firmly on track to achieving our objectives and being a force for good,” she says.
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