Green Building Certifcation

Ecolution offers green building certification from a variety of green building bodies and rating tools. 

Green Star

The Green Building Council of South Africa uses the Green Star South Africa rating system to recognise and reward environmental leadership in the built environment. This rating system is based on the Australian system and customised for the South African context. Each Green Star South Africa rating tool reflects a different market sector including Existing Building Performance, Office, Retail, Multi-Unit Residential, Public and Education Buildings, and Interiors. Ecolution drives the Green Star submission process to ensure each building is rewarded fairly for its sustainability initiatives and innovations.

Net Zero

The Net Zero Certification awarded by the Green Building Council of South Africa is aimed at projects that go beyond the partial reductions that are recognised in the Green Star tools, and have taken the initiative to reach the endpoint of completely neutralising or even positively redressing their carbon emissions; water consumption; solid waste to landfill and their negative ecological impacts. At Ecolution Consulting, we guide building projects through the Net Zero certification submission to ensure they are as sustainable as possible, meet the certification requirements and are recognised as such.

LEED Certification Icon

LEED

LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design), the rating used by the US Green Building Council, is the most wide-spread and internationally recognised green building certification. Through a rigorous, documented process that relies on performance and measurement, LEED rewards and certifies best-in-class building strategies and their practices. Ecolution drives LEED strategy and submission process to ensure each building is as sustainable and innovative as possible, whilst ensuring that the LEED certification criteria is met and the project is recognised and rewarded as such.

EDGE

The EDGE rating system has been introduced to South Africa by the Green Building Council SA and the World Bank Group member, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as well as local partners the National Home Builder Registration Council (NHBRC). The EDGE tool is aimed at increasing energy, water and materials efficiency in South African homes. Ecolution can guide and assist a project team with their EDGE submission, or be appointed by the project developer as the project’s approved independent EDGE Auditor (EDGE AP) to assess the project for compliance and submit it to the GBCSA for review and certification.

What is a Green Building Rating System?

Green Building rating systems are an objective way of certifying that your building is in fact as sustainable as you claim. It allows buildings around the country and the world to be benchmarked against one another. The systems are extremely useful as guides to help the design and construction team to think of and cover as many aspects to sustainability as possible.

Most rating systems work on a credit or point systems which are broken down into categories. The building project will earn points to the degree that it is compliant with the available credits. The project is audited and the points are accumulated to determine what rating (silver, gold, platinum etc.) the building will be awarded.

Rating systems can be applied to new buildings as well as existing buildings and can apply to both the design and construction of the building as well as the operational practices.

The implementation of these systems requires some experience and expertise as the scope is large and the documentation relatively intensive. Fortunately this can be outsourced to external accredited professionals who can guide and lead you through the process. At Ecolution we can offer all of this and more in the form necessary for you and your project.