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Cape Town - Aside from the conventional environmental priorities of energy and materials consumption, buildings can contribute a lot to pollution, according to Shashi Rabbipal, chair of Chevron SA.
That is why he is pleased that Chevron SA - which trades as Caltex in South Africa - has managed to cut its electricity consumption at its new head office in Cape Town by 50%, the company said on Monday.
The R200m, 9 000m² Chevron Century Boulevard head office is a water-positive building, for instance, collecting more water than it consumes. Both rain water and air-conditioning condensate is harvested from the roof and balconies and stored in a tank below the basement, which is almost the size of an Olympic pool. This amounts to a reduction in water consumption in the building by approximately 90%.
Chevron Century Boulevard has been awarded a Five-Star Green Star rating by the Green Building Council of SA for excellence in green building design, construction and management.
“Chevron SA wanted to provide the most appropriate and sustainable long term office accommodation for the well-being of our employees and environment in which we operate. The operations of the building over the past 12 months show that design and construction techniques are critical to producing sustainable spaces,” said Rabbipal.
Thanks to the new green building electricity consumption has been cut by roughly half. Contributing to the reduction in electricity is the installation of a sophisticated lighting control, which is energy efficient and permits control over each light individually.
Louis Karol Architects focused on using mostly locally sourced materials in the building.
