Greening CBD benefits landlord, tenants and the city

WORLD-class cities need to be green cities, according to Central City Improvement District chairman Rob Kane.

The group is a private-public partnership formed by property owners to provide complementary services to those provided by the City of Cape Town for inner-city landowners.

Mr Kane says sustainability is no longer a "nice to have". It is imperative to keep the heart of the central city beating as a commercial, residential and retail hub.

He says, as with other successful global central business districts, the importance his body places on making Cape Town a green city is fundamental to plans to retain and attract business.

Mr Kane, who is also CEO of Vunani Property Investment Fund, which listed on the JSE only in August, is putting his money where his mouth is after greening 14 Loop Street, a recently refurbished 1904 building in Cape Town’s central business district.

He says 14 Loop Street, which his company owns, is paying both commercial and environmental dividends for the owners, the tenants and the city.

During the renovation of the building two years ago, Vunani adopted a range of simple changes, which cut water consumption to a sixteenth and power consumption to less than a third of that of other buildings in the group’s portfolio.

This renovation has also benefited tenants.

"The renovations have translated to saving the tenants R10/m²- R15/m², a 10%-15% saving on a rental of R100/m². Mr Kane sees this as a material saving.

The internal design of the building focuses on energy efficiency. Installing efficient, ducted air-conditioning is more expensive than console units.

But it saves 30% more power than a console solution and is, therefore, a better option in the long run.

Another advantage of the open-plan format was a saving on building costs and materials.

Water savings are driven by the installation of waterless urinals and dual-flush toilets.

Rain water is collected on the roof of the building, stored, and then used as grey water.

"Where possible, Vunani used reconstituted materials and renewable resources, such as bamboo and recyclable materials, such as aluminium, which reduced the environmental impact of the renovation.

"We retained existing fittings where possible, which reduced costs," Mr Kane says. He says both Eskom and the Department of Environmental Affairs have been impressed by the building’s energy efficiency statistics.

"Eskom is very excited about the energy efficiency statistics from the project and would like to take the learnings from it further," says Eskom sales and marketing manager Lodine Redelinghuys.

The deputy director-general of environmental programmes at the Department of Environmental Affairs, Guy Preston, says: "We would like to challenge other buildings in the Cape Town central business district to implement a combination of efficiencies of equipment and a change in behaviour to reduce their carbon footprint."

Mr Kane says the central business district is "open for business", and would like to create a sustainable and attractive work environment for employees and tenants in Cape Town’s city centre.