by Shane Henson — November 11, 2011—Vodacom, a pan-African mobile telecommunications company, and its parent company, Vodafone, have broken new ground in South Africa by achieving the first ever 6-Star Green Star SA rating for the Vodafone Innovation Centre building in Midrand, Johannesburg, set to open the first quarter of 2012.
The Vodafone Innovation Center will be carbon neutral and powered by renewable energy. Once completed, the center will house a team of experts tasked with creating energy efficiency solutions that are expected to significantly reduce Vodafone’s global emissions. The WSP Group Africa provided design engineering services, namely structural and civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and wet services, as well as sustainability consulting, modeling and Green Star submission coordination.
According to the Green Building Council of South Africa, which is the official certification body of buildings under the Green Star SA Rating System, a green building is a building that is energy efficient, resource efficient and environmentally responsible. GBCSA considers a 5-Star rating to show “South African Excellence,” and a 6-Star rating to show “World Leadership.”
This is the first time that a South African building has achieved the highest available Green Star rating. Vodacom’s achievement may serve as the impetus for more South African companies to reduce their impact on the environment and pursue a favorable rating through the Green Building Council of South Africa.
