The Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW) is proud to announce that its 9 Dorp Street head office has been awarded the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) Four- Star Green Star Existing Building Performance (EBP) certification for a public sector building.
This certification, which is valid for three years, recognises that the operation, maintenance and management of 9 Dorp Street is at “Best Practice” level. EBP star ratings are awarded on a scale from 1 to 6. This is South Africa’s first four-star public sector EBP rating, and is the highest public sector EBP rating so far. Eight DTPW officials did the groundwork to make this achievement possible.
Over the next three years, DTP W plans to direct its efforts towards improving this rating to five stars, which is the South African Excellence standard, or even to six stars, the World Leadership standard, as well as getting more of its significant buildings EBP certified. In an innovative collaboration with the GCBSA Academy, 54 DTPW officials undertook EBP Accredited Professional (AP) training. Eight of these officials used the 9 Dorp Street building as a case study during their training. This put them in a good position to submit the 9 Dorp EBP application once they had qualified.
In line with DTP W’s mandate to deliver sustainable infrastructure and accommodation for the Western Cape Government and with focus areas in the Public Works Green Building Policy (October 2018), Provincial Public Works continues to work at greening the built environment, including greening existing buildings, and supporting officials to undergo GBCSA training and certification.
Numerous Provincial Public Works officials are currently undertaking New Buildings & Major Refurbishments AP and Net Zero AP training. AP qualifications enable institutions to do their own certification. These qualifications equip built environment professionals to design and deliver more sustainable infrastructure and accommodation, and work better with appointed APs and other professionals.
The Department recognises the extraordinary effort of the members of the certification team, both to qualify as APs, and to successfully achieve this rating, which was undertaken voluntarily and in addition to all their normal work commitments and responsibilities.