From Gold Stars to Green Stars: The Benefits of Green Buildings and Innovation at Sasol Place
Written by Stephanie Botton
You may have heard the term “Green Building” but what does it actually mean?
In a nutshell, green buildings aim to reduce the negative environmental impact of the built environment and its occupants. The motivation for green buildings lies in their ability to combat key environmental problems, ranging from unsustainable energy consumption and Green House Gas (“GHG”) emissions, to the pollution of air and water, and poor waste management. The World Green Building Council (“WGBC”), together with various national green building councils, including the Green Building Council of South Africa (“GBCSA”), promotes and informs the green building movement.
Green building developments have higher energy and resource efficiencies with lower negative environmental impact. They deliver a variety of benefits to the building owners, occupants and society at large, including making a difference to the bottom line. Not only do they bring increased energy, water and space efficiency, together with sustainability and adaptability for the future - they also reduce operating costs, provide higher rates of return and increase the productivity and well-being of building users. A recent study by Harvard showed that certified green office buildings see a 26% boost in occupant cognition, a 30% reduction in sickness-related absenteeism and an increase in employee sleep quality by 6%. Another study found that green building occupants were 15% more productive than those employees in a non-green equivalent building.
How Green is Green?
The GBCSA uses a customised Green Star South Africa (GSSA) rating tool that segments the areas in which a building can earn green points into different categories: for example, management, indoor environment quality, energy, transport, water, materials, land use and ecology, emissions and innovation. To obtain a Green Star Rating from the GBCSA, the green measures implemented in a building are weighed up and allocated points accordingly. Green buildings may be respectively awarded certifications for 4-Star (base rating), 5-Star (South Africa lead) and the maximum of a 6-Star (International lead) rating.
Going Green at Sasol’s Global Headquarters
In line with Sasol’s sustainability strategy, Sasol Place, the company’s new global headquarters in Sandton, has thus far achieved a 5 Star GSSA Design rating. As one of the largest single-tenanted buildings in Africa, this 67 000m2 commercial space includes a wide array of green building features and initiatives. These features are intended to realise significant cost savings and long-term value for Sasol through efficiency, productivity and flexibility, enabling environmental sustainability and future proofing.
A key aim in developing Sasol’s new global headquarters was to implement green technologies to reduce energy and water consumption and ensure self-sufficiency should there be a temporary loss of either water or electricity supply. The building has rainwater harvesting and grey water systems which are used for toilets and irrigation, significantly reducing the amount of potable water consumed. Sasol Place is characterised by its extensive use of natural light, with 70% of usable areas having direct line of sight to outdoors. A daylight harvesting system has been implemented to take advantage of the abundance of natural light and helps minimise the usage of artificial lighting throughout the building. To further save on energy costs, all artificial lighting is LED.
When it comes to building occupants’ wellbeing and productivity, indoor environmental quality is critical. Sasol Place is designed according to strategic space planning principles, allowing each employee to have sufficient, ergonomic working space combined with aesthetically-pleasing and cognitively-engaging features. High quality air is circulated throughout the building using the HVAC control system, which responds to both the seasonal climate and building occupancy. The HVAC system, coupled with the high performance glass façade and automatic, sun-tracking blinds allows for 95% of the building’s usable area to have high levels of thermal comfort. In addition, combination of the innovative façade design and the integrated blind system at Sasol Place reduces glare within the office spaces.
Transport-related aspects of Sasol Place were carefully planned to adhere to green building standards and suit business requirements, while considering the high traffic volumes in the Sandton CBD. Sasol Place has 87 015m2 of dedicated parking areas which allocated to standard bays, green bays (dedicated to hybrid and carpooling vehicles) and motorcycle bays. Even more environmentally-friendly transport users such as cyclists and joggers are provided with dedicated lanes, shower facilities and day storage areas. The building’s proximity to various public transport options, including the Gautrain, allows employees various transportation choices, with a shuttle service safely transporting employees to surrounding areas. The Sasol Place basement incorporates an occupancy parking sensor system which reduces the running time of vehicles searching for a parking space, and thus their emissions.
In managing the Sasol Place project, construction and furniture materials (and related supply chains) were carefully selected, as was the choice of plants to be used throughout the building. An example of environmentally-cognisant construction decisions is the limited use of concrete in the building, facilitated by the structural design and use of cable tension bridges. The building is also surrounded by approximately 4,000m2 of expansive landscaped gardens and water features which forms one of the largest roof-top gardens in South Africa. It is constructed over the super-basement, planted with only indigenous plants to encourage the return of natural bird and insect-life back to the area.
The design, construction and continued management of a largescale green building project such as Sasol Place requires extensive expertise and insight in the field. The success of these projects requires in depth understanding of innovative green construction and fit out options, combined with the capability to meet the occupants’ business requirements of this space. It is clear that Sasol Place ticks all these boxes, and sets a high benchmark for the future of green buildings in South Africa.
You may have heard the term “Green Building” but what does it actually mean? In a nutshell, green buildings aim to reduce the negative environmental impact of the built environment and its occupants.