Housing in Southern Africa October 2015

Housing

Shedding light on building and energy

I n his presentation ‘Inspiring Better Buildings’, at the Inter- national Housing Solutions 7 th annual Affordable Housing Confer- ence, Cruikshanks says that the EDGE Residential Green Building Tool has the potential to effect positive change. The EDGE tool is used glob- ally to measure energy, water and embodied energy in materials. A 20% reduction of energy and water over a seven year period of 1,3 million green homes represents an annual power savings equivalent to 3 300 acres of solar farms, water savings of 38 million cubic metres and savings of millions of tons of CO 2 per year. Qualifying criteria for projects to S isulu says, “Government wants to advance contractors, de- velopers and builders from Construction Industry Development Board Level 1 to a Level 4.” She says that the selling of ten- ders does not help government to empower small and medium sized contractors. Sisulu and Executive Mayor of Nel- son Mandela Bay Metro Municipality, Danny Jordaan met with developers to present a package to develop a credible and fair database of sup- pliers and training, developing and mentoring of contractors, in order to deliver and fast track quality human settlements. “All spheres of Government, Na- tional, Provincial and Metro are committed to developing small

Grahame Cruikshanks, Manager Climate Change and Sustainability Services GreenBuildings at Ernst and Young says that newbuildmulti- unit residential projects must achieve a 20% reduction in energy, water and embodied energy in materials.

register depends of the number of units, number of housing typologies and unit price. The EDGE Residential Green Building Tool is a globally recognised certification compliance system. Whether a developer, equity funder or industry stakeholder with rental units, the on-line tool can be used to assess the project for com- pliance and not as a design aid or building modelling tool. Currently, contractors to become big players in the construction industry. We have developed a package of support programmes to be implemented by Human Settlements agencies, National Home Builders Regulatory Council (NHBRC), Housing Develop- ment Agency (HDA) and all layers of Government to help with finances and skills development, we are here to help small contractors” Sisulu said. Jordaanadded that theMetrowill pay all contractors within the stipulated 30 days. “The Metro will work hard to pay on time, contractorsmust ensure that theyalsodotheirpart, theymustmeet all our regulations to ensure quality.” More than 400 contractors are reg- istered on the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro database. ■

only new build residential projects are eligible for certification. Housing developments across the spectrum can register but it does not apply to fully subsidised housing projects. The Green Building Council of South Africa, has partnered with the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) to operate and administer EDGE in South Africa. This includes training and certification of EDGE accredited professionals. On that note speaker Abrie Botma fromEPCMGlobal management con- sulting services firm, specialising in development and project life cycle models as well as project readiness and capabilities assessment in the energy sector, explained the impact of Eskom load shedding on busi- nesses. In his presentation Botma quanti- fied the cost of load shedding quoting economist, Chris Yelland, the cost of stage one of load shedding (800 MW – 1300 MW) – 10 hours of blackouts per day for 20 days costs the economy R20 billion per month. In stage two, the cost to the econo- my increases to R40 billion permonth and in stage three, this doubles to R80 billion per month. Standard Bank’s Chief Economist Goolam Ballim says that energy is oxygen to the economy. It is likely that structurally South Africa cannot grow at better than 2% - since energy is a significant factor. ■

Stop selling tenders

October 2015