Custom energy and water benchmarking

The standard prescribed industrial benchmarks from the GBCSA Industrial Pilot Tool could not be applied due to Corruseal’s highly specialised and energy-intensive industrial packaging processes that run 24/7. Instead, the project team pivoted to Compliance Path 2 for Comparable Buildings. Solid Green sourced and evaluated recent utility data from two similar heavy-manufacturing operations within the same climate zone. This allowed us to establish a realistic, data-driven baseline tailored specifically to the facility’s unique operational realities.

Driving impact through genuine innovation

While meeting standard EBP criteria is an achievement in itself, Corruseal Boksburg pushed boundaries and secured two additional Innovation Points by focusing on ecological rehabilitation and advanced workspace ergonomics.

Innovation 1: Ecological Restoration of a Neighbouring Wetland

Rather than limiting environmental stewardship to their own property boundary, Corruseal took direct responsibility for a heavily degraded natural wetland pan adjacent to their facility. For decades, this site suffered from environmental abuse. Historical illegal dumping left it buried under debris and smouldering refuse heaps, while the surrounding water channels were choked with plastic and paint fragments.

Corruseal launched an active restoration programme to clear out the accumulated litter from stormwater channels, remove invasive alien vegetation, and systematically restore the pan’s ecological value. This ongoing rehabilitation has started to turn the wetland back into a thriving sanctuary for wildlife. Recent bird counts indicate a massive return of biodiversity, including multiple species on the vulnerable and near-threatened lists, such as Maccoa, Knob-billed, and White-backed Duck, Greater and Lesser Flamingo, African Marsh Harrier, African Darter, Great Crested Grebe, and Black-crowned Night Heron.

Innovation 2. Occupant Ergonomics

True sustainability requires taking care of the people inside the building. Corruseal looked beyond standard Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) requirements to conduct an in-depth investigation into workspace ergonomics. As an industrial manufacturing site, staff are frequently exposed to repetitive motions, heavy lifting, and awkward postures. This initiative focused directly on reducing overexposure to ergonomic risk factors, enhancing staff wellbeing, operational efficiency, and overall workplace effectiveness, which addresses a valid concern outside of the current scope of the Green Star SA tool.

By stepping up to revive a vital community ecosystem, prioritising day-to-day occupant wellbeing, and committing to Green Star principles, Corruseal Boksburg has demonstrated that heavy manufacturing buildings can actively participate in the green building movement.

Image: The Corruseal Boksburg facility, featuring a 1.2 MW rooftop solar PV installation, significantly lowering operational emissions.

The post Corruseal Boksburg: the 5-Star journey appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

“It’s impossible to put a value on a building that brings integrity to its urban landscape,” says Carollyn Mitchell, Director at Intaprop.

The City of Johannesburg has signed the C40 agreement, which is about doing the right thing for the city and its future generations. At Intaprop, we fully support this drive to make the right environmental choices. Oxford Parks is designed to take Green Star into the public realm, and we actively encourage our partners and tenants to lead the way in this respect.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

Martin Lardner Burke, Senior Associate at DHK, elaborates on the building’s architecture:

The design was a direct response to the clear definitive brand standards, site orientation and overall location within the precinct. These three components established the overall form, orientation, and look and feel of the building.

Double volume glazing was constrained to the long south façade and short east and west facades to limit heat loading on the glazing, and performance glass was specified as needed. We specified robust local materials where possible to reduce the overall carbon load of the building and minimise future maintenance requirements.

Annelide Sherratt, Head of Department: Green Building Certifications at Solid Green, adds, “Innovation was an important part of the process. The Innovation credit that the project targeted was based on the WELL Exterior Active Design credit. This required the project to leverage site design and amenities within the immediate vicinity to encourage the building users to engage in physical activity throughout the day.”

Photo Credit: Intaprop

The WELL credit promotes investment in urban infrastructure to support a vibrant community by stipulating walkable surrounds to the building, to prioritise pedestrian movement above motorised transport. The ground floor level is public and freely accessible, with walking paths throughout the site that are not impeded by fences or gates. The design also incorporates outdoor spaces that can be used year-round and that contain seating and biophilic elements. Various artistic installations have been placed strategically at the key access points to the site, at entrances to the building, and internally on public levels.

The hotel also supports occupant and visitor activity by facilitating the use of bicycles with 8 staff bike racks with lockers, 18 visitor bike racks and a staff shower.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

A number of energy, water and environmental initiatives contributed to the certification. An energy model of the building was generated in the design stages of the project, which helped to inform decisions to achieve an energy consumption efficiency of over 60% improvement when compared to a SANS 10400 notional building. Further modelling enabled a high level of thermal comfort by ensuring that the internal operative temperatures are within the ASHRAE Standard 55-2004 Acceptability Limits for at least 98% of occupied hours.

Both the building’s chillers have a heat recovery function that allows the excess rejected heat that occurs during the cooling process to heat up water in a separate system. This pre-heated water is then fed into the hotel’s main domestic hot water system tank, helping to reduce the energy required by the main domestic hot water system. Further energy savings are enabled by occupancy sensors and individual light switches that are provided for all individual spaces or enclosed spaces.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

A smart irrigation system uses soil moisture sensors that provide highly accurate readings of soil moisture under all conditions of temperature and soil chemistry. This, together with water efficient fittings that limit occupant water usage, allow water savings of approximately 43% against a notional building reference case.

To better understand and manage consumption and assess opportunities for energy savings, all major energy and water consuming systems are sub-metered.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

A project-specific Environmental Management Plan established guidelines for the construction process to minimise the environmental impact associated with construction activities; and a project-specific Waste Management Plan helped to minimise the contribution of waste going to landfill. The project also aims to recycle or reuse 60% of the total waste from the hotel, and a waste recycling storage area with 30 bins has been provided to encourage building users to minimise waste going landfill sites.

In proactively engaging with the public realm and implementing forward-thinking sustainability initiatives, the Oxford Parks Red Radisson has made a significant contribution to the precinct’s overall vision of attaining a high quality, vibrant environment for its users.

*The Solid Green team is deeply saddened by the loss of project architect Thapelo Letsoalo from DHK Architects, during the process of completing the project. The building is testament to his great design talents and diligent work. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

Photo Credit: Intaprop

Project Team

Developer: Intaprop
Accredited Professional: Solid Green Consulting
Architect: DHK Architects
Electrical Engineer: RWP Taemane Consulting
Fire Engineer: WSP
Lift Sub-contractor: Schindler
Mechanical Engineer: Adaptive Resource Engineers
Quantity Surveyors: Gro2 Consulting
Structural/ Civil Engineers: Pure Consulting
Sustainable Design Review: Solid Green Consulting
Sustainable Building Consultant: Solid Green Consulting
Wet Services: Izazi Consulting Engineers
Main Contractor: Concor
Project Manager: Morta Project Management
Landscape Consultant: Insite Group

The post Oxford Parks Red Radisson excels with a 5-Star Custom Hotel Certification appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

Image credit Abland.

“The HVAC system implemented therefore provides a high proportion of good quality outside air,” she explains.

Smoking inside the building is prohibited; and only interior finishes with low Volatile Organic Compounds have been specified for the fitout. In addition, all gaseous and fire suppression systems and thermal insulants used have an Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) of zero.

An energy model was generated in the design stages of the building to ensure that thermal comfort levels are within the ASHRAE Standard 55-2004 Acceptability Limits for at least 98% of occupied hours. Various energy initiatives were implemented to reduce the overall energy consumption of the building. All individual spaces or enclosed spaces are individually switched with occupancy sensors to offer greater flexibility for light switching; and care was taken to ensure that the office lighting is not over designed, and that artificial lighting with minimal energy consumption was specified.

Image credit Abland.

This reduction in operational energy consumption will ensure that Greenhouse Gas Emissions are minimised during the building’s lifecycle. As data gathering is essential to assessing opportunities for energy savings, sub-metering of major energy consuming systems was implemented.

Sub-metering of major water consuming systems is also in place. The building was designed to reduce the consumption of potable water for the building’s fire protection and essential water storage systems; and occupant water usage was limited to 0.4L/day/m2 thanks to the specification of water efficient fittings.

Image credit Abland.

Project specific Environmental and Waste Management Plans were developed and implemented during the construction phase to establish guidelines that minimise the environmental impact associated with construction activities, and to minimise the contribution of waste going to landfill.

As transparency in terms of perceived Green Building premiums is extremely important to help drive sustainability in the sector, Lakeview Phase II completed the financial transparency criteria to assist the GBCSA with market research and to help create a broader public awareness around the actual cost of Green Buildings.

“Nedbank has once again confirmed its dedication to driving green building in the property sector by committing to both 4-Star Green Star Office V1.1 Design and 5-Star As-Built certifications. This includes operational benefits expected from 45% energy savings compared to an average office building,” Sherratt concludes.

Collaborating with a client and professional team who share a common vision has made the certification process that much easier and has allowed each professional to push for sustainable solutions within their area of expertise, resulting in the significant achievement of the 5-star rating in As-Built.

Project Team

OWNER & CLIENT: Nedbank
DEVELOPER: Abland
ACCREDITED PROFESSIONAL & SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CONSULTANT: Solid Green Consulting
ARCHITECT & WET SERVICES: MWLF Architects
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER: Claassen Auret
FIRE ENGINEER: IFE SA International Fire Engineering
LIFT SPECIALIST: Quality in Motion
MECHANICAL ENGINEER: Spoormaker & Partners
QUANTITY SURVEYORS: Quanticost
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS: WSP
MAIN CONTRACTOR: Tiber
PROJECT MANAGER: Morta Project Management
LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS: Connie Pretorius Landscaping
IRRIGATION CONSULTANT: Controlled Irrigation

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Kamogelo Mmutlana, CEO: Barloworld Automotive & Logistics, explains that their new home aligns to the company’s growth ambitions of being a modern, future-focused and fit-for-purpose organisation. The sculptural, contemporary building, which is designed to accommodate 380 staff members over four floors, rests on a podium formed by two naturally ventilated basements. In contrast to Barloworld’s previous offices, the building design incorporates a flexible, open plan working environment that allows for improved productivity.

Barloworld Automotive and Logistics Head Office in Centurion has recently been awarded a 5-Star Green Star SA Design Rating v1.1.

A viable implementation strategy

“Resource efficiency was a major consideration for both the owners and tenant,” says Simon van Helsdingen, Property Development Manager at Abland.

During the past three years, the Centurion and Irene areas have experienced regular water interruptions. And, in keeping with best green building practice worldwide, passive energy design and energy efficient mechanical systems were required from the outset. The inclusion of sustainability features meant that we could target a 5-Star rating during the design process, as opposed to the initially anticipated 4-Star rating.

The 5,860sqm building accommodates meeting rooms, a gym, a coffee shop and cyclist facilities for staff and visitors, among other amenities and is enclosed in a highly transparent envelope that gives access to views over the surrounding urban context. P.W. Hattingh, project architect at Nsika Architecture & Design, says, “From the inception of the project the design team and developers were like-minded that this project would try to achieve a high level of energy efficiency that will benefit the end-user. Best practice principals such as effective building envelope design, efficient energy use and good indoor environmental quality, were paired with commercially effective design and a viable implementation strategy.”

A vertical aerofoil louvre fin structure was chosen for the eastern and northern envelope, acting as a ‘permeable jacket’ to keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter.

Carefully considered façade design

The concept focused on creating a simple floor plate form allowing for a high rentable ratio efficiency so that resources could be channelled into a strongly aesthetic envelope. “The superstructure, as well as the choice of façade system and glazing type, were major design consideration,” Hattingh explains.

The idea was to create a permeable glass envelope that would sit lightly on a naturally ventilated basement. Time was spent to optimize the structural design in relation to the building material weight, and to create a good glazed-to- solid façade ratio. This allowed for a market-related structural design on very difficult soil conditions while also achieving optimal natural internal lighting quality with ample external views.

Both the northern and western facades are double-glazed, to improve internal thermal conditions and address acoustic challenges arising from the adjacent highway. With a ratio of more than 80:20 between glass and solid façades, several shading design options were investigated. A vertical aerofoil louvre fin structure was chosen to wrap around 42% of the building’s eastern and northern envelope. The louvres act as a ‘permeable jacket’ to keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter. This is achieved by optimizing the aerofoil fin spacing and angle of the fins for each façade orientation.

The development is situated in Irene Link, a 75,000sqm precinct located along the N1 highway.

Resource efficient systems

Due to the recent water interruptions, it was decided from the outset to minimise water use in the building and to provide effective and safe back-up water supply. Dash Coville, Sustainable Building Consultant at Solid Green, explains:

The building makes use of water efficient sanitaryware fittings as well as water-wise landscaping and irrigation to support the water consumption reduction strategy. A rainwater storage and filtration system was also introduced into the building. The system collects rainwater from the roof and purifies it to a potable level for use throughout the building. These initiatives have led to a major reduction in municipal potable water consumption.

In terms of energy efficiencies, a large 120kW photovoltaic system was designed by Barloworld Power. The system is expected to reduce the building’s annual energy consumption by 200MWh. In addition, 100% of the building’s light fittings are LED, which are connected to motion sensors.
A Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system, which enables a levelling out and reduction of the building’s peak energy demand, has also been incorporated into the building’s design. This is achieved by ‘charging’ thermal storage tanks containing glycol-water during off-peak periods when electricity is cheaper and the country’s energy demand is low. During normal operating conditions, the charged TES tanks then supply additional cooling energy to the building, reducing the municipal energy demand. This process reduces the designed HVAC system’s full load by up to 50%.

Energy and water sub-metering have been employed, which will enable the building to be effectively managed and the outcomes of the implemented sustainable initiatives realised. The meters are connected to a system which presents live data on a visual display, which is located in the reception area of the building and supplies real-time consumption information to building users and visitors.

The design intention was to create a permeable glass envelope that sits lightly on a naturally ventilated basement.

A benchmark for Irene Link

Barloworld Automotive & Logistics Head Office is joining the global community in combating the negative effects of climate change and preserving our planet. In doing so, it sets a high standard for future buildings in the precinct and contributes to driving best practice principals in the commercial building sector.

Water-wise landscaping and irrigation in the surrounding outdoor spaces support the water consumption reduction strategy.

Project Team:

Developer: Abland (Pty) Ltd
Owner:  Abland (Pty) Ltd, Giflo Developments and SOM
Accredited Professional: Solid Green Consulting
Architect: Nsika Architecture & Design
Electrical Engineer: Taemane Consulting Engineers
Fire Engineer: Ronald Koekemoer & Associates Fire Protection Engineering Consultants
Mechanical Engineer: C3 Engineering
Quantity Surveyors: Quanticost
Structural Engineers: DG Consulting Engineers
Sustainable Building Consultant: Solid Green Consulting
Wet Services: GK Pereira Consulting
Main Contractor: WBHO
Project Manager: Abland (Pty) Ltd
Landscape Management Company: Insite Landscape Architects

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