slow train coming

There is nothing yet to force Cape Town developers to incorporate sustainable features in their buildings. At least, no regulations; but there's a quiet revolution gaining momentum that will soon change the building industry.

The first office building to be built in Cape Town with anything resembling green credentials was the BP head office, completed around 2003 in the V&A Waterfront. With solar panels, rainwater collection and a few energy-saving design features, the building remains the city's most well-known green building. It would not achieve a very good rating under formal green accreditation schemes such as LEED, BREEAM or Green Star, but it was a trail blazer.

This BP building helped raise awareness of green building design among Cape Town's architects and engineers, but it only happened because of the global transformation of BP's image 'Beyond Petroleum'. In fact, the absence of a strong local driver for the development of green buildings in Cape Town may be one reason why some of the BP building's green systems aren't working as intended.

Sustainable processes and technologies are pointless if there is no commitment to keep them going. If you want waste to be reduced, sorted and recycled, you need people who occupy the building and manage its operations to believe in waste management as part of a broader sustainability strategy.

Today, the context is different. While there is still no legislative imperative to get sustainable systems installed and operating in South Africa's buildings, there is another force at work. Just as the groundswell of public opinion has forced more politicians to consider environmental issues and brought them, however reluctantly, to the Bali negotiating table, public opinion is also shaping the markets that guide developers.

If it achieved nothing else, the BP building did play a role in evolving public awareness that is now encouraging Aquacor to plan the Red Brick Building in Cape Town's inner city. The property developer is placing strong marketing emphasis on the incorporation of solar water heating, grey water recycling, energy-efficient lighting and on-site electricity generation in the block of flats. With construction only scheduled to begin in March 2008, recent advertisements claim that 70% of the units are already sold.

Probably the first building in Cape Town that will take green building to the next level will be the planned extension of the Cape Town International Convention Centre. (Rendering of the extension is in the foreground of the picture, taken from Skyscraper City.) Competing in a global market, the CTICC has no choice but to ensure that it achieves some level of environmental accreditation under an internationally recognised scheme. Increasingly, convention organisers are including green credentials in their venue selection criteria. For the first time in Cape Town, this will subject a developer to a formal commitment and an auditing process that guarantees the inclusion of more than token green technologies in building designs.

The public is becoming more discerning, and the days of 'greenwashing' will soon be over. The green building revolution will be supported by the Green Building Council of South Africa, which is developing a South African accreditation system, but in the absence of a legal framework the real force for change is the investing public.