Mobile group Vodacom has achieved South Africa’s first six-star Green Star SA rating for its new Vodafone Innovation Centre building, in Midrand, Johannesburg.
The building, which would be completed in the first quarter of 2012, would be carbon neutral and powered by renewable energy, the company, a unit of Britain’s Vodafone, said on Tuesday.
The centre will house a team of experts creating energy efficiency solutions that are expected to significantly reduce Vodafone’s global emissions.
“The Innovation Centre, as the hub of our creative thinking around a low-carbon future, will play a critical role in the reduction of carbon emissions across the group,” said Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys.
The design has tested and explored a number of building designs and technologies that have not yet been tested in South African commercial buildings. As a result, this building can become a national educational opportunity for further transformation in the built environment, added Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) technical executiveManfred Braune.
“Six stars is the highest Green Star SA rating and equals ‘World Leadership’. The Vodafone building puts South Africa firmly in line with global best practice in terms of green building,” commented GBCSA executive chairperson Bruce Kerswill.
In September, the Aurecon office building in Century City, Cape Town, became South Africa’s first five-star Green Star SA-rated building.
The past two months has seen GBCSA rate four new green buildings under the Green Star SA rating system. This brings the number of certifications in South Africa to 12, with two of these receiving both design and as-built ratings.
