Construction World July 2015

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JULY 2015
ENVIRONMENT
Pienaar is a director of Growth-
point Properties, South Africa’s
largest JSE-listed REIT and a
JSE ALSI 40 company, which has
property assets valued at nearly R100-bil-
lion. Pienaar has been a member of the
GBCSA board since 2010, chairs its marketing
committee and sits on its exco.
The GBCSA was established in 2007 to
promote green building development in the
country. It is a member of the World Green
Building Council (World GBC). Today, it is one
of the most active councils worldwide.
Brian Wilkinson, CEO of the GBCSA,
comments: “We’d like to congratulate Rudolf
Pienaar on his appointment as the deputy
chairman of the GBCSA board. Rudolf Pienaar
has been a dedicated and active member of
our board and is a committed advocate of
green building practices – his appointment is
richly deserved.”
With 30 years’ experience in the prop-
erty industry, Pienaar has served in senior
management positions of five listed property
companies. He is a director of Growthpoint,
Acucap and the V&A Waterfront. Pienaar
also serves on the Advisory Board of the
Department of Construction Economics at
the University of Pretoria.
Pienaar has been among those at the
forefront of South Africa’s movement for a
sustainable, green building environment
since 2008 and is a champion of Growth-
point’s green building leadership. Pienaar is
director of the Growthpoint Office Division,
which includes a significant R32-billion
portfolio of offices. Growthpoint is a Plat-
inum Founding Member of the GBCSA, a JSE
Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index
company and a Dow Jones Sustainability
Index company. It is also a top performer in
the CDP Climate Performance Index.
Growthpoint owns or co-owns the largest
portfolio of green buildings of any company
in South Africa. It co-sponsored the GBCSA’s
Energy and Water Benchmarking Tool and is
taking part in the pilot programmes for the
Green Star SA Existing Building Performance
Tool and the Socio-Economic Category. It has
also partnered with GBCSA for the Greeno-
vate Awards pilot which encourages students
of the built environment to find ways to live
more sustainably and helps link environ-
mental challenges to innovative thinking.
Commenting on his appointment,
Pienaar says he is looking forward to the
opportunity to foster a greater understanding
of the benefits of green building for both the
owners and the occupiers of properties.
“The property sector contributes 40%
of emissions world-wide. This puts a huge
responsibility on property practitioners to
change this – and the time to change is now,”
says Pienaar. “Building by building we want
to transform our properties so the people
who use them can reach their maximum
potential and businesses can thrive.”
Green building is a win-win for building
occupiers and owners. Green buildings are
also good business. They provide lower total
occupancy costs for tenants, are proven to
deliver higher returns for owners and are
designed to have positive impacts on their
surrounding communities and environment.
Green buildings also have significant benefits
for employee well-being and productivity.
Pienaar believes collaboration is
the key to driving the green building move-
ment forward.
This means building owners and occu-
piers coming together, buildings interacting
positively with their communities, the collec-
tive benefits of green building structures
and green interiors, and the entire property
industry working together for a more sustain-
able built environment.
“Property is a highly competitive
industry. Yet, when it comes to sustainability
it is important that we continue to work
together as peers in an open and collabora-
tive way,” says Pienaar. “This is an approach
the GBCSA has nurtured and I would like to
see it grow even more.
“We are a dedicated team of industry
experts working in collaboration with
industry bodies, leaders, government depart-
ments and professionals to develop market-
based green solutions for the South African
property industry. Rudolph is a valuable
member of this team and will serve as an
asset in his new role and assist us to continue
doing what we do,” Wilkinson concludes.
Pienaar adds, “By freely sharing informa-
tion about both our success and failures we
can drive green building forward with greater
pace and results. Everybody wins.”
NEW DEPUTY chairman for GBCSA
The Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) recently
announced it has appointed Rudolf Pienaar as its deputy chairman.
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Rudolf Pienaar, the GBCSA’s recently appointed
deputy chairman.
The winners of the 4th Global
Holcim Awards for Sustain-
able Construction have been
decided – the trophies and
USD350 000 prize money go
to projects in Colombia, Sri
Lanka and the USA.
All three prizes recognise archi-
tectural interventions that deliver
tangible benefits to local commu-
nities: Turning a decommissioned water
reservoir into a park in Medellín, rebuilding
social fabric through a community library in
Ambepussa following Sri Lanka’s civil war, and
creating public zones and flood-protection for
the island of Manhattan.
The USD2-million Holcim Awards is the
most significant international competition
for sustainable design and takes place every
three years. The 4th cycle attracted more than
6 000 entries for projects to be built in 152
countries. A jury of international experts led
by Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate
School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University,
USA selected the winners.
Global Holcim Awards Gold
2015
Articulated Site: Water reservoirs as public park,
Medellín, Colombia.
Mario Camargo and Luis Tombé, Colec-
tivo720, together with Juan Calle and Horacio
Valencia, EPM Group (Empresas Públicas de
Medellín), all from Colombia.
GLOBAL HOLCIM AWARDS
WINNERS FOR 2015
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