+IMPACT MAGAZINE ISSUE 22

INSIGHT
INSIGHT
PEOPLE
Category aim: This category
encourages solutions that
address the social health of
the community by bringing a
new dimension to the design
and construction of buildings.
It recognises the multitude
of people who are involved in
the delivery and occupation of a
building and rewards the design team
and builder’s internal practices that promote diversity, equity
and inclusion; facilitate local economic development and
equitable growth of priority groups; and encourage buildings
to be more accessible to a diverse population and welcoming
to their needs.
LEADERSHIP
Category aim: This
category recognises
the use of innovative
practices, processes and
strategies that promote
achievements beyond the
scope of the rating tool
as released and that drive
market transformation. This may
include meeting the aims of a credit
using a technology that is considered innovative to
South Africa’s market or implementing an initiative that
substantially contributes to the market transformation
towards a climate positive development.
POSITIVE
Category aim: This category
encompasses credits that
relate to carbon, as well as
energy and water use.
Category director: Francois
Retief, Founder of Sow and
Reap Green Building Solutions
Key changes from V1: This category combines aspects
of the old Energy, Water, and Materials categories, but
there is now a greater focus on embodied carbon. This
category uses a tool that will allow project teams to begin
quantifying upfront carbon emissions. It promotes low
carbon construction solutions far beyond the current
tool’s focus on concrete and steel as the main offenders.
There is an emphasis on performance-based targets that
are calculated and their impacts quantified, as opposed
to providing prescriptive measures to implement.
Retief explains that the performance focus simplifies
the certification process while also driving high levels
of performance. The methodologies used aim to narrow
the gap between design and real-world performance
using calculators which will give closer predictions and
also be able to compare actual operational figures to the
design model outputs.
Comment from the category lead and/or GBCSA
“The POSITIVE category, as the name suggests, aims to
move the conversation from ‘doing less bad’, to developing
buildings with a positive, regenerative impact; buildings
that work alongside nature and its elements, as well as the
people they serve,” says Retief.
It is a more holistic tool which
takes a more integrated and
systems approach to buildings
within their environment.
PLACES
Category aim: PLACES
includes four credits;
Contribution to Place,
Identity of Place, Movement
and Connectivity as well as
Safer Spaces. Contribution
to Place explores placemaking
and the formation of
the city scape. It explores how to
create interactive and communitybuilding
spaces supported with an appropriate activation
strategy that will inform any future tenants/owners how
the spaces can be used most effectively to build social
cohesion.
Movement and Connectivity encourages occupants
and visitors to use low carbon, active and public
transport options instead of private vehicles. Culture,
Heritage and Identity explores and finds ways to reflect
local culture, heritage and identities of different people
groups and community members who relate to the
specific site. Finally, the building should contribute to
the creation of safer spaces for the community.
Category director: Adrie Fourie, Head of Sustainable
Cities and Research at Solid Green
Key changes from V1: The PLACES category is new
with this version, but incorporates a lot of content
from the old Transport category into its Movement
and Connectivity section.
Comment from the category lead and/or GBCSA
Fourie explains that this category calls for an integrated
design approach that responds better to specific
locational context drivers and places people at the
core of the design.
Category director: Michelle Ludwig, Founder of Ludwig
Design Consulting
Key changes from V1: The PEOPLE category is largely new
with this version release, but it overlaps with some content
from the old Indoor Environment Quality and Materials
categories. The credits within this category are Inclusive
Practices, Economic Development, Empowerment and
Social Equity as well as Design for Inclusion.
Comment from the category lead and/or GBCSA
“Green buildings in South Africa must support socioeconomic
development,” says Georgina Smit, head of
technical at GBCSA.
Category director: Not applicable
Key Changes from V1: This is a new category that
doesn’t dictate specific credits but rather rewards
innovation in whatever forms it takes.
Comment from the category lead and/or GBCSA
Through the new tool we aim to “recognise and
reward excellence and leadership in this field in
both the private and public sector,” explains Dash
Coville, technical manager for special projects
at GBCSA.
NATURE
Category aim: This category aims to shift the building industry from being an historical
destroyer of natural ecosystems to one that is integrative, resilient and regenerative
of local indigenous ecosystems.
Category director: Mike Aldous, Technical Principal at MPAMOT
Key changes from V1: This category expands on the old Land Use And Ecology, and
Emissions categories, but is more specific in the areas it addresses and requires more
stringent measures to comply. The credits in this category address Impacts on Nature,
Ecological Regeneration, Nature Connectivity, Nature Stewardship and Waterway protection.
Comment from the category lead and/or GBCSA
Aldous explains that it is important to remember, “Built and Environment are not mutually exclusive concepts, the
Nature category looks to redefine the interaction and blur the boundary.”
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