Integrated Green Building Innovation into the South African Economic Recovery Plan
This week the South African government gazetted 50 strategic integrated projects valued at R340 billion (USD 21 Billion) as part of its infrastructure development plans to institute a green recovery plan for South Africa following the devastating economic impacts left by COVID-19. The projects are focused on different targets including water and sanitation, energy and human settlements.
Central to all these sustainable infrastructure needs to rebuild the economy is the country’s required access to reliable and affordable energy. Without energy we simply cannot move forward in our ambition to grow the economy. In response to these energy infrastructure needs the National Department of Mineral Resources and Energy plans re-introduce its long-term integrated resource plans to deliver 16,313 MW from a mix of energy sources. To put things into perspective 16 000 MW could power 16 cities of the size of the City of Ekurhuleni. A 100 MW alone can power an entire Mossel Bay in the Western Cape.
The property market is already seeing a resurgence as one of the first announcements of the strategic human settlements is the planned R30 billion Mega City infrastructure development project that is situated east of the capital city of South Africa, Tshwane. It is the outcome of a public-private partnership between residential real estate developer Balwin Properties, the Gauteng provincial government, and the City of Tshwane. The infrastructure development is being pursued in line with green building principles, and aims to make optimal use of green belts and green spaces for residential recreation as well as the enforcement of the National Energy Efficiency Building Standard, SANS 10400-XA. Moreover, the development seeks to incorporate innovative green building concepts that will be guided by the EDGE (“Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies”) certification.
South Africa’s addiction towards conventional building methods and our belief that everything has to be about brick and mortar needs to change if we hope to have a future that is green and sustainable.
Understanding the Current Challenges
While the National Energy Efficiency Standard has been in place for 9 years, it has been applied to varying degrees of success across the country. The reality of this is that most of the cities have a below par level of compliance to the National Building Regulation and to the supporting standard SANS 10400-XA.
In addressing this challenge Green Building Design Group identified that one cause of this low level of compliance is the lack of understanding of the Energy Efficiency Building Regulation and related Deemed-to-satisfy standard following a pilot workshop that was conducted at Tshwane House on 13–14 March 2018 that we had conducted in partnership with USAID South Africa Low Emissions Development Program (SA-LED), City of Tshwane and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). A video link of the proceedings can be accessed here. Prior to the start of the project the City of Johannesburg, City of Ethekwini, City of Tshwane and the City of Cape Town initiated benchmark studies to understand the level of compliance and understanding with the SANS 10400-XA. From these it was identified that the levels of understanding the national energy efficiency standard stood at less than 50% on average across these cities. In some cities this was estimated to be as low as 33%.
The pilot workshop identified that this knowledge gap in the understanding of SANS 10400-XA at the city level could be remedied by tailor-made training sessions on the subject. In this regard, Green Building Design Group approached the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to help address this monumental challenge in the country to undertake the roll-out of the SANS 10400- XA Training workshops for City Building Control Staff, comprising Building Control Officers, Building Inspectors and Plans Examiners in the 8 metropolitan cities in South Africa. Thereby ensuring that as the country seeks to introduce renewable energy projects in these cities it also ensures that the infrastructure gets built with the necessary energy efficiency considerations in place. To put things into perspective these municipal staff are the city officials that deal directly with building plan approvals at the city council level.
The training project was amended so that there could be additional EDGE Expert training sessions therefore formulating the country’s first ever Integrated EDGE and SANS 10400-XA training project for Municipalities. One of IFC’s strategic priorities in South Africa is to support the government’s efforts to foster low-carbon economic growth and resilience through the EDGE Green Building Transformation Program. The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) and IFC launched IFC’s EDGE certification program in South Africa to focus predominantly on the residential property market in 2014 and to date has certified over 1 million m2 of floor area.
The Integrated EDGE and SANS 10400-XA training materials were peer reviewed by the National Building Regulator in South Africa, which is a significant achievement since it plays a key role in the writing and overseeing of the implementation of the National Building Standard. Each training was also validated for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits by the South African Council of Architectural Professionals (SACAP).
The primary goal was to improve the industry-wide understanding of the SANS 10400-XA through training of 560 building control professionals in the 8 major metros in South Africa. Secondly, the goal was to increase their confidence in their ability to apply the SANS 10400-XA in their day to day operations. By the time the effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) imposed a national lockdown restriction there was only one in person training workshop remaining in the project and therefore it was mutually adopted by the project team to develop a virtual training session which took place over Zoom.
Lessons Learnt from the Project
By the end of the project over 469 Building Control and Inspectorate staff attended the training. A total of 427 government officials participated in the in-person training sessions and a total of 42 building control participated in the virtual training sessions. A total of 56 participants took part in the accredited EDGE Expert training sessions.
It is anticipated by SALGA that there are currently 1000 Building Control staff in the entire country so this effectively means that close to 47% of these staff in the country were impacted by the project. The monitoring that was done by our project team also identified that the overall understanding had significantly improved compliance levels with the National Energy Efficiency Standard from 50% to just over 70% by the end of the project. The project has been successful in not only upskilling municipal officials, but it has also improved the overall compliance of the building industry and thereby helps to mitigate climate change in these cities. As much as the Project was successful in improving the understanding of the SANS 10400-XA in the said metropolitan areas it should be noted that the high staff turnover rate of Building Control staff would require this type of training on a regular basis especially as four of these cities have embarked towards Net Zero Carbon pathways leading up to 2030.
Key Recommendations on Sustainability and Possible Future Work within the Municipalities
There is a total of 257 municipalities in South Africa, comprising eight metropolitan, 44 district and 205 local municipalities. The training project only focused on the eight metropolitan areas, leaving the opportunity to extend the scope of the initiative. Based on feedback from the project participants, it can be concluded that the delivery of the national training materials was positively received and is now ready to be rolled-out to other smaller municipalities in the country.
There is still a strong need to bring in key partners to assist in developing a national strategy to implement this compliance training nationwide especially as the country seeks to make sustainable infrastructure a key tenet in its economic recovery plan from the negative impacts of COVID-19. Green Building Design Group has already identified potential partners to ensure the successful execution of the training in all South African municipalities. Peer-to-peer knowledge sharing can be achieved through a “train the trainer” programme that is currently being designed for South African Sustainability Champions within the Building Control Office of Municipalities.
Songo Didiza
Founder and Chief Executive
Green Building Design Group
www.greenbdg.co.za
