Environmental sustainability is a key element for Century City, Cape Town’s smart city and green building principles form a significant part of creating an environment where people can walk and cycle, carbon emissions are reduced. Energy efficiency, water efficiency and smart ways of managing waste are all part of the Century City daily way of life.
Led by Century City’s main developer, Rabie Property Group and Hyprop, owner of Canal Walk Shopping Centre, the largest mall in the Western Cape and fifth nationwide, Century City’s Green Star rating tally just went up to twenty two.
Rabie’s Junxion Park recently received a 4-Star Green Star Office Design certification from the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA).
Junxion Park is a redevelopment of part of the former Ratanga Junction site that comprises three office buildings, targeted for Green Star and EDGE certification. Some of the property’s sustainability features include energy efficient lighting, efficient heat pumps, smart energy and water monitoring, and treated effluent from Potsdam Waste Water Treatment Works is used for toilet flushing and landscape irrigation.
Of Century City’s eleven 4-Star Green Star certifications, there are two mixed-use developments, Century City Urban Square (the first in South Africa) and Bridgewater, which contain multiple buildings, each with their own accreditation.
Century City Conference Centre, part of the Century City Urban Square development, has achieved the following awards on its own merit:
- Green Key Certification: Awarded with a 100% audit score in its first year, administered locally through the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA).
- Industry Recognition: Voted Africa’s Sustainable Venue of the Year at the 2019 Global MICE Awards and won Silver for Positive Climate Impact at WTM Africa 2024.
Century City Conference Centre proudly aligns its sustainability strategy with the Green Key Eco-Certification Programme, the leading international standard for environmental responsibility within the hospitality and tourism sector.
Green Key certification recognises establishments that meet rigorous, independently verified criteria across environmental management, water, energy, waste, cleaning, and sustainability education for staff, guests, and suppliers.
Century City has eight 5-star Green Star ratings, one being Canal Walk Shopping Centre for existing building performance, awarded in 2020. In addition to this achievement, Canal Walk can also now boast a Net Zero Waste Level 2. The centre has a 40-tonnes in-vessel composter, separation-at-source training for tenant staff, and dedicated organic bins on every back-of-house floor. The result was a lift in diversion from landfill from 43% to over 85%.
The partnership between Hyprop, Don’t Waste, Green Gap and GBCSA ensures the combined teams can complete a rigorous yet rewarding process that is changing how retail centres operate, decreasing their environmental impact, and making them more resilient.
The Zutari building, developed by Rabie, was the first 5-star Green Star rated building in South Africa. In addition to its 4-Star Green star rating, Estuaries Plaza is also a Net Zero rated building.
All Rabie’s recent residential developments, Nine Palms, On Park and Park Place have achieved EDGE Advanced certifications. EDGE Advanced is the second tier of the EDGE Green Building Certification system developed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group, with the following key requirements:
- at least 40% on-site energy savings compared to a local base case and must still meet the standard baseline requirement of at least 20% savings in water and
- 20% in embodied carbon in materials.
- The third requirement is to be Zero Carbon Ready which means that buildings achieving EDGE Advanced status are officially recognized as “Zero Carbon Ready,” ergo that they are efficient enough to transition easily to full net-zero carbon status.
EDGE has three levels:
- EDGE Certified (Level 1), which is 20% minimum savings in energy, water, and materials,
- EDGE Advanced (Level 2), which is 40%+ energy savings, plus 20% water and material savings and
- EDGE Zero Carbon (Level 3), which is achieved by taking EDGE Advanced buildings to 100% renewable energy (on-site/off-site) or verified offsets.