V&A WATERFRONT SHOPPING CENTRE ACHIEVES FIVE-STAR GREEN RATING

The V&A Waterfront’s waste management and
recycling practices have earned the property a five-star Green Buildings
Council of South Africa (GBCSA) Green Star Existing Building Performance (EBP)
v1 certification for its Victoria Wharf shopping centre.

This is the highest rating for any existing
shopping centre in South Africa.

The shopping centre, which attracts almost
24-million visitors a year, previously achieved a four-star EBP award in 2015.
To attain the new five-star rating, it had to demonstrate that its operations
and maintenance consistently achieved the same high standard over a three-year
period.

Energy and water monitoring, as well as management
policies and plans are required to achieve the five-star rating. The EBP
measurement tool also addresses the relationship between landlord and tenants,
setting up a “win-win situation”.

V&A Waterfront operations manager Petro Myburgh says the centre has
done a lot to lower its water consumption since 2015.

“We have further improved our waste management
systems and implemented a Wildlife Management Programme. With the four-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,” she highlights.

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
five-star rating, the V&A Waterfront has amassed a total of 12 GBCSA
awards, making it one of the greenest precincts in the country.

The V&A Waterfront has also recently retained its platinum status through the Heritage Environmental Rating Programme. https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/va-waterfront-shopping-centre-achieves-five-star-green-rating-2019-08-05/rep_id:4136