SA Affordable Housing January / February 2018 // Issue: 68 | Page 25

FEATURES
Edge certified Candlewood Crescent, Boksburg is developed by RPP Developments and funded by IHS.
There was a gap in the offering they had so we saw that as
an opportunity to work together,” she says.
The GBCSA is the IFC’s certifying partner, they certify all
the applications/certifications on their behalf. “They would
train the local auditors or experts, vet whatever projects
we’d put through the system to reach the Edge standard.
We work together with them to ensure they maintain the
standard. They make it happen,” she says.
Using the tool to see how efficient your project can be or
is, is freely available. Cairncross says that anyone can go
ahead and assess their project and see if it meets the
standard. The reason for this is to make it more accessible.
An efficient project has a water, energy and material saving
of 20% respectively. “Obtaining a certificate does involve
a cost because they would need to get an accredited
professional to audit their project. However, it is a lower
cost option than some of the other standards that are
available,” she says.
There is an overall sustainable development goal for
South Africa and climate falls into that. South Africa plans
to mitigate 61 4 metric tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
“By building green houses that are Edge certified and
compliant they would be able to help reduce those
emissions to help meet the target South Africa is aiming
for,” she says.
A World Green Buildings Trends report released in 2016
reveals that about half of local developers are thinking of
certifying at least 60% of their projects by 2018. Plus,
research into climate investment opportunities in
emerging markets conducted by the IFC identifies that
there is an investment potential for green buildings close
to USD7-billion (R100-trillion) over the next few years.
GETTING CERTIFIED
There are two processes that a developer goes through to
get certified – a pre-construction certification and a post-
construction certification.
“During the pre-phase we’ll look at the plans and see
whether your building design is going to meet the standard
and run that through the online app.
Once it’s been constructed they’d look at the sample and
check that you have available documentation to show that
what is on the plans matches the constructed building,”
says Cairncross. It is important that the certification is
incorporated into the planning and design phases of the
project. She says that it can become tricky to add green
items to a design that didn’t cater for this initially.
The tool isn’t an operational performance standard so
once it’s certified, it’s certified. The IFC is looking at a re-
certification process after five years.
“What has come out in some of the early projects that
were certified, is that the installation of smart meters on
site, to track performance, found that performance was
actually better than predicted,” she says. “We are in the
process of collecting further data to show what the real
savings are,” she adds.
The green app is one of the few online efficiency tools
that gives you a payback calculator. It looks at the cost of
the business case, which is the project, and estimates the
overall cost of going green looking at utility costs and
leaving you with a payback period.
“In some of the initial projects the additional cost for
going green has been between 1 and 3% and a payback
period of about two years or less. In some projects it’s
even been as low as 0.5%,” she says.
Rating criteria involves following the standards
stipulated in the South African National Standards (SANS)
10400 building regulations. Incorporating measures to be
efficient are quite simple, things such as low flow faucets
or showerheads, LED lighting, natural ventilation,
insulation, reducing window to wall ratio, solar water
heating, building materials and greywater harvesting
among others.
“Greywater harvesting is more and more important in a
water scarce country, now everyone is looking at how to
save water. Building an Edge certified home is one way of
preserving water,” she says.
When developers put in the criteria for their project
they realise that they’re already meeting the standard or
are very close to that. “It’s just a few tweaks that they need
to make,” she says.
AFFORDABLE
SA HOUSING
JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2018
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