The V&A Waterfront’s far reaching waste management and recycling practices has earned the property a prestigious Green Buildings Council of SA (GBCSA) 5 Star Green Star Existing Building Performance v1 certification (EBP v1) for the popular Victoria Wharf Shopping Centre – the highest rating for any existing shopping centre in South Africa.
The Shopping Centre, situated in the heart of the V&A Waterfront, attracts almost 24 million visitors per annum, making it the country’s most visited destination. The Shopping Centre previously achieved a 4-Star Existing Building award in 2015. To retain the new 5-Star rating, it will have to show that its operations and maintenance consistently achieve the same high standard over a three-year period.
Existing buildings are rated according to an Existing Building Performance (EBP) measurement tool. The environmental categories used by the GBCSA to assess existing buildings and new buildings are the same, but the focus for an existing building is on ensuring that its ongoing operations and management are efficient. The EBP tool is therefore only available as an as-built rating.
The Victoria Wharf Shopping Centre was first constructed in 1992, and has since been extended several times to 88,647 m2. Improving the rating required significant effort from the Waterfront’s operations team and the tenants. The Victoria Wharf complex houses over 450 retail outlets and over 80 eateries, has five undercover parking garages and four open parking areas.
Items such as energy and water monitoring, and management policies and plans are required in order to achieve the 5-Star rating. The EBP measurement tool also addresses the relationship between landlord and tenants, setting up a win-win situation with the Green Lease toolkit.
According to Petro Myburgh, Operations Manager at the V&A Waterfront: “we have done a lot to decrease our water consumption since our 2015 4 Star rating. We have further improved our waste management systems and implemented a Wildlife Management Programme. With the 4 Star rating we committed to implementing the Green Lease toolkit and we now have just below a quarter of our tenants signed. This is quite an achievement given the size and complexity of the area.”
CATEGORIES: Victoria Wharf additional sustainable features in 2019
The categories according to which the Victoria Wharf was rated are management, indoor environmental quality, energy, transport, water, materials, land use and ecology, emissions and innovations. Stand-out sustainable building features noted by the GBCSA include:
- Excellent recycling initiatives, incentives for tenants to recycle and an on-site waste handling facility
- Skylights throughout the Wharf provide a large amount of natural light, saving on energy
- Energy efficient LED lighting has been installed throughout the common areas
- The building has access to public transport facilities, most notably the MyCiti bus system
- The V&A property has cycle facilities, including dedicated lanes and bicycle storage right next to buildings
- The V&A uses paints, flooring, adhesives and sealants without toxic emissions. Tenants are encouraged to do the same
- All taps and toilets are water efficient, while the roll-out of hand sanitiser also assists with water saving
- ‘Green Cleaning’ practices are applied in the building
- Construction materials with a low environmental impact receive preference
- There is an operational drive to eliminate single-use plastics from the Shopping Centre
Waste Recovery and Recycling Centre:
While incentivising tenants to recycle, the V&A Waterfront also ensures the property keeps pace with global plastic recycling best practice.
Since January 2018 the Waste Recovery and Recycling Centre has sorted waste from 384 daily collection points (including wet waste) on-site, essentially clearing 550 bins twice a day.
To date, the Waste Recovery and Recycling Centre’s successes include:
- Between 1 January 2018 and 31 May 2019, the V&A Waterfront diverted 3,200 tonnes of created on the property from going to landfill.
- Created an additional 44 direct jobs related to waste management (the total number is now 86).
- Created a training facility.
- Introduced tenant education programmes.
The future focus for waste and recycling initiatives at the V&A Waterfront includes an ‘intensified separation at source’ campaign to further improve organic waste diversion and investigating further on-site solutions towards zero waste to landfill in the future.
In addition to the Victoria Wharf Shopping Centre’s 5-Star rating, the V&A Waterfront has amassed a total of 16 GBCSA awards, making it one of the greenest precincts. The V&A Waterfront has also recently retained its Platinum Status through the Heritage Environmental Rating Programme.
- Tenant waste tariffs, whereby tenants are penalised financially for not separating waste at source
- Precinct-wide landscape waste management by making use of an on-site composting facility, where compost is generated for use on site
- Precinct-wide building and site management by operating a telephonic helpdesk system, whereby building occupants provide instantaneous feedback on any issues
- Precinct-wide landscape management whereby all invasive alien vegetation is removed, and building staff are educated on the negative environmental effects of alien vegetation
Additional information:
The V&A Waterfront has committed itself to optimally-operated buildings based on efficiency and design and to ensuring that all new buildings including developments achieve a minimum 4-star (or higher) GBCSA rating. The tool measures the operational efficiency of the building, hence having a significant impact on the resource efficiency and recycling practices of tenants, leading to overall savings of 60% in water end 2018 (using 2010 as a baseline) and 35% in energy consumption. Behaviour change has been further enhanced by training, implementation of the green lease and ongoing communications for tenants.
As part of the rating we conducted in-depth tenant surveys, and the information obtained through these studies allowed us to address thermal comfort concerns, raise awareness around our sustainability initiatives and educating tenants around energy efficiencies, recycling, best practices and the overall performance of the building. The tool was also used as a guide for all new tenant installations done- (from conceptual stage right through to the actual implementation and trading) stipulating our minimum requirements when it comes to fittings and fixtures as part of the design philosophy
When looking at the price of any EBP rating, the key drivers of cost is associated with the size of the property and the amount of individual surveys to be done. We had the benefit of pre-certified credits that was agreed to by the GBCSA based on the precinct and can be applied to any EBP rating leading automatically to a 3-star rating from the onset without any additional implementation leading to cost saving and then allowing for the “low hanging fruits” to be targeted next.
- How was a 5-Star rating achieved under v1 of the tool, when the building was 4-Star rated under the Pilot tool?
The Vic Wharf was in actual fact rated from the onset again, a rerating would imply a measurement against the exact same tool which was not the case. The Pilot tool conceptually developed the path for v1, meaning variances and changes could still be made to the tool with the development of v1 or somethings might have looked great on paper during the pilot phase but actual execution would make it impossible and had to be rewritten under v1, having this said from personal experience it’s much easier to an achieve any kind of rating under a pilot tool as the requirement to meet are not as stringent as under v1 of any given tool for that matter. A first rating also indicates an organisation’s intent to implement policies and procedures leading to building efficiencies, but a rerating would actually entail the physical measurement of operational efficiencies based on the development and implementation of those policies and procedures.
- The EBP tools measures certain aspects of operation over a period of time. Where does the building score particularly well? And badly?
The Building scored particularly well in Land use management and Ecology, transportation, water conservation & usage, and the management of material and products being used on the property. Energy management and emissions still poses challenges however the waterfront has various contingency measures implemented or are in the process of being implemented that would speak to these specific areas.
- How have things progressed from 2015 to 2019 to enable the building to ‘upgrade’ to a 5-Star? What made this possible? Any specific advancements in technology? Have prices of some technologies come down?
The further improvement on waste management systems, the commissioning of an on- site waste handling and sorting facility, the implementation of the green lease toolkit in all new and existing tenant’s lease agreements, extensive measurement and application of new measuring technology for the managing of emissions, the implementation of a Marine Wildlife management programme. The installation of PV panels on 10 rooftops and more rooftops earmarked for additional installation. All new developments to be a minimum rating of a 4-star green star rating – calling for the implementation of Energy and water efficient technology and innovation.
- What were the challenges, strengths etc? For example, there would also have been savings in electricity as well as lack of downtime during load shedding periods. How does the building deal with water shortages?
The challenges presented during load shedding and the water crises has also presented various opportunities for the Waterfront to become leaders in industry, in actual fact even before the before mentioned crises’ the Waterfront lead the industry with the implementation of energy and water efficiency initiatives and technology, we’ve realised that with the current growth rate of the property efficiency was key to allow us to continue business as we know it and also to conserve the planet for future use. The Waterfront has become self- sustainable in many ways allowing the opportunity to be operational even when presented with power cuts or water shortages, installations such as PV panelling, boreholes, desalinations plants, water recycling systems in new developments and car washes, the Silo district cooling plant and the soon to be operational Vic Wharf district cooling plant making use of alternative measure to allow for building cooling.
- What are the complexities in terms of EBP related specifically to shopping centres?
The main complexity would be efficiency in tenanted spaces, the measuring of multi tenanted retail spaces, implementation of the green lease toolkit in tenanted spaces and measurement thereof. Due to the assumed associated cost factor, many a people still reside under the impression that green buildings and the management thereof are more expensive than non-green buildings which is not the case. Current technologies have advanced in such a manner with the return on investment period being shortened immensely take PV panelling for an example due to the current cost of electricity today.
- How has going green affected the building’s bottom-line in terms of tenancies, vacancies etc?
With a tenancy vacancy rate of 1% in the Vic Wharf the greening of spaces and the rating thereof has definitely led to retention of tenants and staff, with major flagship stores such as Woolworths undertaking a major refurbishment and implementing sustainable green practices.
