In September, Manfred Braune, Chief Technical Officer at the Green Building Council South Africa, said of Solid Green on the occasion of the company receiving a 4 Star Green Star SA – Office v1 Rating (Green Star SA ratings include Design and As-Built ratings for New Office buildings, a Public Education building, a Multi-unit Residential building, Office Interior ratings and Existing Building Performance ratings) for Menlyn Maine Pegasus:

The GBCSA congratulates Solid Green on achieving this significant milestone and for becoming a leading consulting firm in the green building sector, having been responsible for a very significant proportion of the 130 Green Star SA certifications to date. It is organisations such as Solid Green that are key enablers, working with the GBCSA, to transform the built environment into a more sustainable one.

Braune’s “very significant proportion” includes 20 successfully facilitated Green Star SA certifications – the newest for Menlyn Maine Pegasus (which houses Regus and BMW, among others) marking this milestone. In the four years from founding by Marloes Reinink in 2010 to December 2014, Solid Green completed 10 certifications – as of 2015, another 10 ratings have been achieved, meaning output has doubled in the last year.

On Solid Green‘s watch, Menlyn Maine Pegasus (corner of January Masilela Drive and Amarand Avenue, Pretoria) became, in 2009, the first building registered with the GBCSA for a Green Star SA Rating. Menlyn Maine embodies the ambition of the precinct developers to have all the buildings certified, with the project bringing together a group of professionals well versed in the sustainable building design and construction techniques necessary for making and maintaining a green precinct.

Pegasus includes a number of passive design initiatives, such as: the use of building orientation and sizing of floor plates to gain optimal daylight for the building; and use of the site and hard surfaces to collect rainwater. Sustainability initiatives were considered at design and carried through to construction by, for example, making use of: coated glazing for improved thermal control; concrete with reduced cement content; and recycled steel in the rebar. In Pegasus, energy and water consumption are actively monitored by a Building Management System (BMS), with building services being optimised to improve building performance and to reduce resource consumption.

Menlyn Maine sustainable building features:

• Potable water use is reduced by rainwater harvesting (from most of the site area) for irrigation and toilet flushing.
• Water and energy sub-metering and monitoring through BMS.
• Building delivery as Shell-&-Core – allowing tenants to complete their own fit-out – reduces the unnecessary waste normally accompanying tenant fit-out where the base building includes finishes.
• Steel in the building has a weighted-average post-consumer recycled content of 78%.
• Fire-protection system has been designed so that as little water as possible is lost during system testing procedures.
• Building is ideally located within walking distance of a variety of amenities and public-transport services.