Living plastic-free and actively reducing waste are not merely lifestyle trends; they are foundational pillars of a sustainable future. When we examine waste through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the interconnectedness of our daily choices becomes undeniably clear:

• SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): Directly challenges us to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse (Target 12.5) while ensuring the environmentally sound management of chemicals and plastics throughout their life cycle.
• SDG 14 (Life Below Water): Targets the prevention and significant reduction of marine pollution of all kinds, particularly from land-based activities including plastic debris that harms marine biodiversity.
• SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): Emphasises reducing the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, specifically through spatial planning, municipal waste management, and circular economy practices.
• SDG 13 (Climate Action): Addressing waste directly cuts greenhouse gas emissions, both by diverting organic waste that produces methane in landfills and by avoiding the heavy carbon emissions associated with manufacturing virgin plastics and textiles.

The macro scale: how green building certifications cut waste and plastic

At Solid Green, we see firsthand how high-performance built environments drive circularity. Green building rating tools such as Green Star, LEED, EDGE, and GBCSA Net Zero Waste are powerful structural mechanisms for eliminating waste long before a building even opens its doors.

1. Construction & demolition waste diversion

During construction and refurbishment, unmanaged waste can have a major negative impact on the direct physical environment and the general environment. Green building certifications require Construction Waste Management Plans (CWMPs), with the newer Green Star V2 tool mandating this. Projects are required to audit, sort, and track waste streams, diverting anywhere from 50% to over 95% of demolition and construction materials away from landfills through material recovery, adaptive reuse, and composting.

2. Operational waste & material audits

Once occupied, green-certified buildings target operational waste through dedicated rating criteria (such as Green Star’s MAT-2 Solid Waste Management or LEED Zero Waste). This involves:

• Infrastructure for Separation: Installing multi-stream recycling stations and dedicated organic composting facilities in tenant spaces to eliminate single-use plastic contamination.
• Procurement Policies: Encouraging sustainable building operations that eliminate single-use plastics in corporate canteens, events, and facilities management.
• Waste Audits: Conducting continuous waste stream audits to track diversion metrics and hold waste contractors accountable to verified compliance standards.

The personal scale: mindfulness in everyday practice

While green building standards provide the structural framework, ongoing change also relies on personal accountability. Over the past year, I have made intentional shifts in my own household to align my daily habits with the very goals we advocate for professionally.

1. The glass transition (done mindfully)

I made a deliberate decision to stop purchasing plastic food containers and replace them with glass alternatives. However, true zero-waste living requires avoiding the trap of “sustainability consumerism.”

Rather than throwing out perfectly functional plastic containers simply because they are plastic, which would generate immediate waste, I adopted a gradual replacement strategy. I continue using our existing plastic containers for as long as they remain usable and safe, replacing them with durable glass alternatives only when they reach the end of their functional life.

2. Curbing textile and fashion waste

Textile production is one of the world’s most resource-intensive and polluting industries. To minimise fashion waste in my home:

• minimalist purchasing: I consciously restrict how many new clothing items I buy, prioritising longevity over fast-fashion trends.
• gender-neutral quality for kids: When buying clothes for my children, I choose high-quality, durable, gender-neutral pieces. This ensures that garments can seamlessly be handed down between siblings and family members, extending their life cycle for years.

3. Mending and Repurposing

Before any household fabric or garment gets discarded, I use my sewing machine to give it a second life. Mending worn seams, altering fits, or repurposing old textiles into kitchen cleaning cloths, household rags, or craft projects keeps fabric out of the waste stream and reduces the need for new single-use paper or plastic goods.

Collective action: voices from the Solid Green team

Sustainability is a collective culture. As part of our ongoing SDG series, here is where we spotlight the creative, practical ways my colleagues across Solid Green are reducing waste and living plastic-free.

Team spotlight & tips

Jennifer Dean: repurposing & plant propagation

Before sending food packaging to the recycling bin, give it a second functional life! I use larger plastic yogurt and ice cream containers as plant starters by simply punching a few drainage holes in the bottom. For water plant propagation, glass jars and containers work brilliantly, turning kitchen waste into green home decor. I also save plastic lids separately to donate to ‘Help the Sweethearts Foundation’, proving that even the smallest plastic components can create meaningful social and environmental impact.

Marloes Reinink: urban composting & community eco-bricks

Living in an apartment shouldn’t stop you from recycling! The key to effective recycling is keeping organic (wet) waste out of your dry recyclables, so I set up a Bokashi system. I keep a small tub on my kitchen counter and empty it into my Bokashi bucket every few days. Once the bucket is full and has fermented for a month, I transfer it to the compost area I set up in our communal garden.

To tackle soft plastics, I also started an Eco-Brick initiative in our building. Residents drop all soft plastics into a dedicated blue bin, and two ladies in our building use the plastic to make Eco-Bricks, earning a small fee for each brick they produce. Once they’re ready, I drop the finished Eco-Bricks off at Jackson’s Real Food Market! It’s a win-win for local livelihoods and waste reduction.

The way forward

Whether we are certifying multi-million-rand precincts to achieve Net Zero Waste or simply mending a pair of trousers at home, the underlying principle remains identical: resources are finite, and every item deserves a circular lifecycle.

By pairing rigorous corporate benchmarks with conscious everyday habits, we move closer to a resilient, low-carbon, and plastic-free future. What is one small waste-reduction swap you can make today?

The post Rethinking waste: from green building benchmarks to everyday choices appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

A strict process of waste, erosion and sedimentation control was implemented during construction – a process that proved to be new for the main contractor and the earthworks contractor, and therefore challenging in terms of compliance and documentation.

With a floor area of just under 310sqm, the project uses 31.5% less water than a baseline building through the use of low flow fittings and efficient kitchen equipment. A third of the site is dedicated to vegetation, which does not have any permanent irrigation systems installed. The project had originally looked at using captured rainwater for irrigation, but xeriscaping turned out to be a more efficient design decision as it avoided the need for water tanks, controls and pumps required for an irrigation system.

There was a 33% energy saving over a baseline building, which was achieved using efficient lighting and HVAC systems. These systems were optimised using a ‘whole building’ design approach that included a highly reflective roof and shading to minimise solar heat gain. The project also has water tanks on the roof and a generator to ensure continuity of operations during service disruptions such as water-cuts or load-shedding.

“The operation of all the systems were verified through the appointment of an independent commissioning agent who checked the design and conducted on-site audits during the commissioning stages,” says Gavin Westbrook, sustainability consultant at Solid Green.

This process revealed that some of the lighting did not achieve the required brightness levels as required by both KFC and LEED. More and brighter lighting was added to the project after occupation and tested again to confirm compliance. This was one of the lessons learned, which will be applied to the base KFC design for other projects.

The project has higher than baseline delivery of fresh air into the occupied spaces and utilises low VOC (volatile organic compound) finishes. Gavin explains that an Indoor Environmental Air Quality Plan was implemented during construction to ensure the healthiest indoor air quality for occupants. LEED requirements also ensure that no smoking happens in the building or in the immediate vicinity. “These are actually less rigorous than the legal requirement in South Africa, but the signage requirements are more stringent so we needed to add more signage around the exterior of the building after completion, in addition to the signage at the entrances, in order to achieve compliance.

All the operational waste from the restaurant and kitchen will be sorted on site for recycling or disposal, including packaging, food waste and cooking oil.

“The project was a challenge for the design team as they needed to go through an iterative design process and get into the details of the materials specified far more than they are normally required to do,” Gavin concludes.

We believe that this has been a positive experience and will guide the implementation of sustainability principles and processes in KFC’s branches moving forward.

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Biophilia in Buildings and Public Spaces

Talks around Biophilia demonstrated a common-sense approach to the design of buildings. Biophilic design integrates nature in places where we live, work and learn. Humans have an innate relationship with nature, and science demonstrates that we are happier and perform better if nature is integrated in our built surroundings.

The first session that we attended on this topic discussed how biophilic design can be made more mainstream and which tools are available for designers to encourage adoption. The speakers, all from the Biophilic Design Initiative, also presented the Biophilic Design Map, which is a database for case studies. The second session, Biophilic Urban Acupuncture, explained ways to make public spaces more attractive through biophilic initiatives. A new book was launched, “Creating Biophilic Buildings” by Amanda Sturgeon – an easily readable and beautifully edited book that describes biophilic initiatives in a number of case study buildings.

Living Building Challenge: Biophilic Design Map

Health & Well-being

A session about Fitwel was also very interesting and inspiring. Fitwel is a cost-effective, high performance building certification system developed by the Center for Active Design with the aim of improving user health and well-being in buildings. The Fitwel scorecard includes 55+ design and operational strategies that enhance building environments by addressing a range of health behaviours and risks. The approach is very hands-on and can be applied to existing operations, new buildings, interiors and multi-family residential.

Meeting Net Positive Water

The greatest challenge to the re-use or capture of water is the local regulatory environment regarding water usage. The key question to ask is: Is it legal? And, if not, can it become legal? This involves a little bit of lateral thinking and working with your local building code official to find out how best your project can be accommodated within the existing regulations. There are regulations for almost everything and it just involves finding the right ones that most people never use or don’t know about. Valuable advice in this session included taking into account and providing a buffer for future climate change. (Resources: https://www.collaborativedesign.org, http://weathershift.com)

LEED Courses & Updates

The “Integrative Design Process” is a new LEED credit but not a new concept, and this approach can have major cost benefits for developers. Unfortunately, it is difficult to implement properly when Green Building Consultants are appointed too late in the process. The course offered inspiring alternatives to standard design processes so that teams can work together to create better performing buildings.

The LEED Project Management Course covered the advantages and disadvantages of different submission strategies and the paths that have the highest success rates. Interestingly, it is recommended to submit for Design and As-built ratings separately even though this carries a higher submission fee. Documentation tips and guidance were given to make the audit as easy as possible and give projects the greatest chance of success in achieving ratings. In addition, changes from LEED 2009 to LEED V4 were identified and common misunderstandings and pitfalls explained.

LEED V4 now has a full building Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) as part of the rating systems options. This allows the full carbon footprint of the building and materials to be measured over its lifetime. It is best to perform an LCA very early in the design process and identify the big-ticket items that will have the biggest impact on the project. This also allows teams to experiment with different options before material specifications are finalised. Guidance and further reading on LCA’s can be found at the Embodied Carbon Network website.

The difference between, and application of, LEED-Neighbourhood Development and the EcoDistricts rating tools where discussed and demonstrated with case study projects. LEED-ND is described as a prescriptive top down rating tool while EcoDistricts is rather a set of guidelines with a bottom-up approach. When dealing with both rating systems, it is important to deal with stakeholders on their own terms in order to address their concerns and hopes for their project.

Stay tuned for our first newsletter in 2018, which will explore some of the fascinating case studies from GreenBuild 2017

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LEED Leadership

The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is the foremost programme for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and health performance – with projects in all 50 US states and about 160 countries and territories worldwide. The Solid Green Office refurbishment was primarily aimed at improving indoor environmental quality for employees – and was achieved by implementing both Green Star SA and LEED interior principles.

Office layout with natural lighting and ventilation

With more than 10 years’ experience in the sustainable consulting industry for the built environment, Marloes Reinink, founder and director of Solid Green, commented:

We obviously wanted to create a space which is energy and water efficient, but more importantly, a space where our staff can thrive and enjoy what they are doing. Our offices are filled with natural daylight and natural ventilation, and incorporate elements of biophilic design, all critical elements to a healthy indoor environment.

“The green building movement offers an unprecedented opportunity to respond to the most important challenges of our time, including global climate change, dependence on non-sustainable and expensive sources of energy, and threats to human health”, said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair of the USGBC. “The work of innovative building projects such as the Solid Green Office is a fundamental driving force in the green building movement.”

Located on the second floor of an existing mixed-use commercial building on Tyrwhitt Avenue, Solid Green’s 180 sqm premises have been designed to accommodate 15 employees in a 120 sqm double-volume studio space, with an additional interlinked 60 sqm workspace and boardroom at mezzanine level, as well as an outdoor terrace which is used as a chill-out and entertainment zone.

Outdoor terrace

As the offices are centrally located in Rosebank, Solid Green‘s employees have easy access to public transport within easy walking distance, including the Gautrain Rosebank Station, taxi rank and bus station. In addition, the company’s senior management has ensured that alternative transport modes are available during office hours, including: an electric car and electric bicycles with charging facilities; car-sharing; and cyclist facilities with a shower.

High-efficiency construction

For maximum energy efficiency, radiant-cooling and energy-efficient equipment have been specified (laptops and printers are Energy Star rated). All light fittings are energy efficient LEDs with occupancy sensors. And a 1.8 kW thinfilm solar PV system has been added to the roof, which takes the office to net zero energy on an annual basis. Water-saving fittings have been installed and rainwater tanks are planned, as well as rainwater harvesting for irrigation of the exterior vegetable garden.

Outdoor vegetable garden

Full-height windows and glass sliding doors at both entrance and mezzanine level, together with strategically placed windows, mean that natural lighting and ventilation are optimised. The indoor environment is further enhanced with indoor planting – a green wall leads from the entrance into the main workspace and plants are located through the open-plan work areas.

Choice of materials

Materials and finishes have been carefully selected for improved thermal and acoustic comfort, and to reduce occupants’ exposure to pollutants. All office furniture is reused or refurbished, with the exception of a few new ergonomic office chairs. Anglo-American donated 20 desks following their own refurbishment while the boardroom tables were bought at an auction and the boardroom chairs from antique stores. The feature seating (foops) in the meeting nook were made from recycled 2-litre plastic bottles and recycled partitioning material, while a love seat bean bag was made from upcycled T-shirt materials.

The meeting nook

Solid Insight

A key feature of the refurbishment was the installation of Solid Green’s own Solid Insight – a software platform that generates accurate live-metering data that can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. By integrating with the office’s smart-metering systems, the application enables automated billing for energy and water consumption, while environmental reporting is also handled automatically.

With its prestigious LEED Platinum certification, Solid Green has succeeded in reinforcing its green building sector leadership in sustainable design, practice and innovation.

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