Geared towards achieving a significant improvement across water, embodied energy and energy consumption in the residential market, EDGE is the new rating tool that the GBCSA is currently implementing in SA.

The initiative is a partnership between the GBCSA, World Bank Group member The International Finance Corporation (IFC), and local roll-out partners The National Home Builder Registration Council (NHBRC) – with Solid Green Consulting as technical consultants on regionalising the tool and testing it for the South African conditions and market. To achieve the EDGE standard, a 20% reduction must be achieved for energy use, water use, and embodied energy in materials over a business as usual baseline.

According to Brian Wilkinson, CEO of the GBCSA,

This entry into the housing market is another major milestone for us and illustrates our commitment to bolstering and promoting green building in all sectors of property development in South Africa. This partnership puts South Africa in a leading position globally to test and apply a simple, easy to use green rating software for homes at scale and will extend the GBCSA’s impact of trying to transform the way that residences are built.

Warren Gray of Solid Green Consulting affirms, “We believe that the EDGE rating tool’s arrival in South Africa will see widespread application in the residential space, a sector that has until recently seen low adoption rates of green building rating tools. With the financial and funding incentives to which the tool provides access, developers have shown a keen interest in EDGE.”

For more information, visit www.edgebuildings.com.