Preferential parking for hybrid cars, photocopy machines with their own extractors and waterless urinals – these are just some of the things occupants of the R5-billion Dube City can expect as KwaZulu-Natal’s latest property development embraces green technologies in the search for efficiency and sustainability.

Dube City is the integrated city that is set to rise on former sugar-cane fields around the King Shaka International Airport (KSIA). Part of the reasoning behind the green measures being taken at the new development is to offset the carbon emissions that the new airport will release into the environment. But there are longer-term implications as well, and these include costsavings and the reduction of the chance that workers in the precinct will suffer from sick building syndrome.

The head office of Dube TradePort, the first development within the planned city, is expected to be completed by July 2011. The second phase will entail the construction of a hotel, entertainment and retail complex. Rainwater will be used for toilets and irrigation and no geysers will be installed. Natural lighting will play a prominent role in all design features and the entire area will be bicycle friendly.

Nedbank is rapidly enhancing its reputation as the green bank with buildings in Johannesburg and on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast. The company’s new offices at Ridgeside, Umhlanga, became a Green Star rated building when the Green Building Council in South Africa awarded them a 4-star rating in 2010. The client, Zenprop, and its tenant, Nedbank, set out to win the rating and brought in assistance from a specialist consultant in the field, WSP Green by Design.

The Green Star Rating is fairly new and presents some tough engineering and design challenges. The Ridgeside planners had to maximise views of the ocean while at the same time minimising glare and thermal heat generation. The four-storey building offers 6 500 square metres of office space and three basement levels.

The developers of a new mall in the Pietermaritzburg area have taken a proactive approach to their local environment by creating a new wetland alongside their development. The 26 000-square-metre retail development, Edendale Mega City, is being constructed on the Mason’s Mill site. The wetland, overseen by Afzelia Environmental Consultants, will be planted with indigenous plants and act as a buffer zone and filter water coming from the centre before it enters the Msunduzi River.

National and international
A national progamme aims to boost the competitiveness and productive capacity of industry through cleaner production methods. The National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC-SA) is a cooperation programme between South Africa and UNIDO with financial assistance from the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the governments of Austria and Switzerland. The NCPC is hosted at the CSIR’s Manufacturing and Materials Business Unit, Pretoria.

NCPC has had a number of success stories in advising and helping businesses use cleaner production methods. Durban-based FFS Refineries converts many types of oil-based feedstock such as ship slop, industrial used oils and refinery byproducts for the manufacture of liquid heating fuel products. NCPC advice has resulted in savings and improved efficiency for FFS. A Pinch heater now recovers energy from the forcefed evaporator which allows for pre-heating of feed oil. This has reduced fuel consumption to the extent of about R21 000 per month. New technology in the emulsion phase separation unit is saving close to R80 000 every month in boiler fuel consumption.

Durban will host the 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 17) in November 2011. The city has a Municipal Climate Protection Programme which includes the Green Roof Project (a pilot programme at this stage, that seeks to encourage food gardens and reduce temperatures and the amount of stormwater coming off buildings), community reforestation initiatives and recycling. Conferences such as COP 17 attempt to show how attention to climate change and the issue of sustainability can be converted to sensible and long-term benefits to industry and commerce. The NCPC-SA was launched during the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002.