+IMPACT MAGAZINE ISSUE 21

PROJECT
PROJECT
Number 9 Dorp Street is a renowned modernist
building in the City landscape. These buildings
are typically modern, in that they employ a level
of horizontally clean white façades, floor-toceiling
glazing which offers views of the South African
landscape, ribbon windows etc and are typically harder
to renovate for greater efficiencies.
“If you aren’t addressing sustainability in your existing
buildings, you’re not making a big enough impact.” These
words, by the deputy director-general of the Department of
Transport and Public Works for the Western Cape, Gavin
Kode, are the driving principle behind the first performance
rating of an existing public sector building with GBCSA.
Initially a guinea pig for sustainability projects, 9 Dorp
Street can now be considered one of the pioneers for
performance-based sustainability in the public sector –
not only because of its physical sustainability features,
but also for ingraining a culture of sustainable practices
among employees and other government officials.
The working environment in the building, situated
close to parliament and the central train station in
Cape Town, is constantly adapted with this principle in
mind. “There’s sort of a freshness to it,” says in-house
accredited professional (AP), Karl-Robert Gloeck. “As you
step out of the lobby, you can already see the perimeter
windows where the natural light comes in. A lot of the
areas are open-plan and with single corridor access.
More employees can be accommodated on a single
floor, and that reduced the overall footprint as far as
accommodating government staff within the CBD.” The
concrete brise soleil elements on the building façade help
mitigate unnecessary heat gain, and the upgraded airchilled
HVAC systems ensure user comfort is maintained,
altogether creating a light and airy feel for all spaces on
the modernised floors.
Desk space has been optimised, light sensors were
installed, and shelves are mostly limited to a height of
1.4 metres, allowing natural light to reach throughout
the floor.
Kode says there’s more to the process than meets the
eye. “It’s part of the journey of becoming an employer of
choice, to attract the best people to do the best job for the
people and citizens of the province. At the same time, you
are reducing water and electricity as well as the cost of
thereof to the taxpayer.”
This nine-storey office block incorporates various
sustainability initiatives in line with the Existing Building
Performance v1 certification tool. The most notable of
which, according to Gloeck, concern water usage, the
building monitoring system as well as the property
efficiency report.
“There are 32 electrical meters, one of which is connected
to the solar PV panels, and there are nine water meters
and a groundwater meter,” says Gloeck. “Essentially, these
allow for monthly reports to be issued to the general
infrastructure directorate for capturing and monitoring,
and there’s a display of energy and water usage for the
building in the foyer. Users entering the building are
able to read the measurements.” This allows for accurate
performance measurement concerning energy and water,
which can be compared month on month, season on season
and year on year.” Energy usage, for example, is metered
per floor, which means that comparisons can be made to
identify where improvements can be made.
The headquarters for the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works.
Visitors to the building are welcomed in an open, light space.
The threat of day zero in 2017 ushered in a drastic
review of the approach to water management, so it comes
as no surprise that this was one of the highest-scoring
categories. “There were a lot of drastic interventions,
including waterless urinals and low-flow fittings for many
of the bathroom taps. The water meters are tuned to a level
where they detect even minor leaks early on.”
Along with this, there are two bigger intercessions:
replacing the water-cooled chillers for the HVAC with
air-cooled chillers, and a groundwater system in the
second basement. Kode says a lot of work has been done
historically, and the dual plumbing system, which now
supplies 95% of the water requirements for the building’s
ablutions, is one of them. It was part of the original
building design, but because no one was thinking about
water scarcity back then, it was only recommissioned
more recently: “Now we are using a lot of free basement
water that would otherwise have been discharged into the
municipal stormwater system.” The water is UV-filtered,
and then distributed for toilet flushing, without cost or
potable municipal water consumption. “That accounted
for about 40% of the water use in 2019/2020,” says Gloeck.
Measuring, monitoring and managing is of primary
concern at 9 Dorp Street, an approach epitomised by the
yearly Property Efficiency Report, which scored the building
a point in the innovation category. “Last year we published
our tenth edition,” says Kode. “This document reports
on the office portfolio of every building greater than a
thousand square meters. Then we can set targets and
benchmark ourselves against similar buildings in the
private sector.”
According to Gloeck, it’s a one-of-a-kind publication in
South Africa. “It reviews the performance and resource
usage of applicable buildings in the portfolio by capturing
and recording their energy and water usage, space
efficiency and other performance metrics, and there’s quite
a substantial framework for comparison for energy and
water usage.” Instead of only having access to information
on the last year or two, APs can now see a decade’s worth
of comparative data. “The improvements have been quite
staggering. There was a reduction in 57% of the energy
usage for 9 Dorp Street from 2013 to 2021, and a remarkable
97% reduction in the use of water for the same period.”
One aspect that sets this certification apart – and
contributed to yet another innovation point – is the
Western Cape government’s attempt to “grow their own
timber”. The eight APs that certified 9 Dorp Street, formed
We are endeavouring to develop
awareness in the realm of sustainability
by investing in our people.
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POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 21
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