Ken Reynolds

SA’s first Green Star Rated Building

Ken Reynolds, Nedbank Corporate Property Finance Divisional Executive for Gauteng and Project Manager of the construction of Nedbank Phase II, SA’s first Green Star Rated building  

As South Africa’s green bank, it is generally expected of Nedbank to be something of an environmental pioneer in the business environment.

The bank undoubtedly lived up to this expectation in September 2010 when its Phase II Head Office building in Sandton was recognised by the Green Building Council of South Africa’s (GBCSA), as the country’s first ‘As Built’ Green Star Rated building.

More than merely reinforcing Nedbank’s ‘green’ brand positioning, this achievement, and the building on which it was based, succeeded in significantly raising awareness of the massive impact that buildings have on South Africa’s overall carbon emissions.

This has also raised the urgent imperative to incorporate environmental considerations – particularly energy efficiency and carbon emissions management – into new and existing buildings across the country.

Unfortunately, while awareness of the need for greener buildings is undoubtedly rising in South Africa, our country still lags significantly behind the rest of the developed world in terms of the application of environmental considerations.

A key contributor to South Africa’s poor position on the global green building achievement scale is the fact that the incorporation of environmentally sound building principles – whether to new construction projects or the retro-fitting of older buildings – remains largely a compliance-driven consideration in this country, rather than an environmental and economic sustainability imperative.

Changing this perception of green as a ‘scorecard item’ is a key requirement if we are to eventually achieve a truly ‘green’ built environment. Such a paradigm shift requires an understanding that so-called green buildings are not just reputational or environmental sustainability requirements, but also potentially significant contributors to long-term economic sustainability.

Nedbank’s extensive involvement in the area of green building in South Africa has afforded us a keen insight into the economic benefits that can be unlocked by incorporating energy efficiency and other environmentally beneficial elements into any building. While a like-for-like comparison of a green and non-green building of similar proportions shows that incorporating effective environmental considerations could raise the overall cost by around 10%, our experience is that this cost does not take long to recoup, particularly given the rapidly increasing cost of utilities in this country.

Using our own Nedbank Phase II building as an example, after just over a year of occupation the energy efficiency initiatives that were incorporated into the construction and design have delivered a 30% improvement in energy efficiency. Assuming this trend continues, the cost of building green into our new office spaces will have been recovered in around three years – at which point the savings become even more relevant to our bottom line.

Of course, building green is new territory for many businesses, which means it’s easy for the potential economic and environmental benefits to be severely compromised by very expensive learning curves. To avoid this, and ensure that the environmental sustainability of a building is supported, from the outset – by a solid foundation of economic benefit – owners, builders, and investors would do well to learn from those who have already negotiated this learning curve.

As a bank that has been involved in six of South Africa’s GBCSA Green Star SA Rated buildings, and occupies two of these and will occupy a third in April next year, Nedbank has learnt a great many lessons – the most important of which is undoubtedly the aforementioned imperative that any desired environmental benefits are accompanied by sustainable economic considerations.

Achieving this begins long before the first sod is turned, or the first energy efficient bulb installed. It requires extensive and exhaustive planning, continued effort to get the buy-in of every single stakeholder in the project, and a keen eye for ‘green washing’ – to make sure that the claims of suppliers and products are legitimate and will indeed unlock long-term benefits, rather than proving to be nothing more than additional costs.

Ultimately, achieving a green building is a massive commitment, whichever way you look at it. But as Nedbank’s experience has proven, it is also hugely rewarding. Not just in terms of the environmental contributions it can facilitate, but also thanks to the fact that building green is a proven way to help keep any business in the black.