cavendish square & the V&A
REASONS FOR GOING GREEN WITHIN THE CASE STUDY CONTEXT
The V&A Waterfront and Cavendish Square have recently made significant changes within their buildings in order to “go green”. The benefits of going green are numerous and include the following:
Eskoms load shedding has affected South Africa’s economy drastically. There is a current shortage of Water and Electricity in South Africa and by going green it will help reduce this crisis. It will not only reduce the crisis at present but impact future utility increases, i.e. Eskoms proposed 60% increase. Through the conversion to green buildings it will automatically give the building a “make-over” and prevent the building from looking tired and in need of modernization. It will furthermore lower operating costs and perhaps increase the building value.
Many people today are more aware of climate change and are far more eco-friendly than ever before. Many tenants insist on a green building to house their business. Therefore, by going green it creates the ability to retain existing tenants as other new “green” buildings come into line.By going green it creates job opportunities through waste recycling etc. By going green the large corporations will benefit from their marketing/ brand awareness campaigns.
In the midst of the current environmentally friendly climate, there are possible new By-laws and other regulations which would have an impact on business. By going green one would be complying with such regulations.
Interview with Andrew Voster: Facilities Manager at Cavendish Square and Colin Devenish: Facilities Manager at the V&A waterfront. The interview was based on the various steps Cavendish Square and the V&A Waterfront has and is taking in order to become more “green”.
At the outset of the interview, Andrew Voster stated that Cavendish did not have a policy to start from scratch and convert the entire building into a "green building". Cavendish’s strategy was however, to adapt the centre as it is at present and become “greener”.
In the interview it was found that there where five areas of concern at Cavendish Square with regards to the conversion of regular buildings to “going green” namely; water, waste recycling, air conditioning, lighting and paint. The steps Cavendish has taken may be broken down into the following above mentioned categories.
There were constraints that Cavendish faced in their efforts to become more green. These included the space for equipment. There was little space for water tanks for recycling pu rposes, or for waste recycling. Due to the demand some of the equipment still carries a high price tag. As some of the costs are recoverable from tenants, it is not a focus area.
Cavendish's efforts in converting to green buildings may be summarized as the following:
1) Water
Cavendish already had in place two water tanks on the roof of the centre in order to aid in air-conditioning. They discovered that they were losing a significant amount of water from these tanks through evaporation and what Cavendish calls the “bleed-off”, which essentially is water dripping from the tanks down the side of the building. What Cavendish did in order to combat this loss of water was to install a water-meter. This meter channeled the bleed-off into two tanks that Cavendish installed. Cavendish placed the two additional tanks in a corner under the parking ramp in order to save space. Now with a mixture of rain water and bleed-off water the two additional 50 000l tanks are constantly full.
This water is not fit to drink as the water from the tanks on the roof is treated with chemicals to aid in the air-conditioning process. Cavendish treats this water to prevent contamination, regulation of salt content and diseases etc.
Cavendish now utilizes this additional water to clean all the refuse bins from the particular stores within Cavendish. The chemicals that were put in place to treat the water for the air-conditioning now aid in the cleaning of the bins. It was also discovered that the workers cleaning the bins often left the hose on and wasted water in this manner. Therefore, Andrew Voster installed a tap on the end of the hose so that in order for water to come out, the worker operating the hose had to hold down the nozzle. This tap also has a pressure system installed so that it is now a high powered hose. The water now blasts out and does an excellent job of cleaning the refuse bins. Through this effort Cavendish has saved 50 000kl/ month on water with a payback period of less than two years.
Further measures that Cavendish has taken in order to save water include: Cavendish has changed the water pressure in the gents’ bathroom so that now the water doesn’t pour out, it drips out. The use of indigenous plants that need less water are currently being put in place. There has also been a general drive/ focus on reducing water leaks, repairing dripping taps etc. Reducing air-conditioning hours has also been implemented however this will be dealt with further in section (3) air-conditioning.
2) Waste recycling
Before Cavendish gets rid of the rubbish they correctly sort it in order to recycle. Cavendish s orts the plastics, glass, steel, paper, cardboard; bottles and other rubbish separately and recycles them in the right manner. Space is a huge issue for Cavendish, especially in the loading area. They utilize the space in the loading area as best they can however, it is somewhat cramped.
Previously there was no tap water to clean the refuse bins. Cavendish had a problem with dirty bins being left unclean for a few days and beginning to smell and attract flies. However, since Cavendish has installed the two tanks (mentioned above) they have pumped this water into the loading bay area where they now clean the bins. As mentioned above the chemicals present in this water aid in the cleaning of the bins.
3) Air-conditioning
The air-conditioning contributes to approximately 50% of Cavendish Squares account. It was therefore, a priority that Cavendish minimizes this cost as well as go green in the process.
As a set standard, Cavendish utilizes the air-conditioning system only when it has to. Cavendish turns on the air-conditioning 30min before the start of trading which commences at 09:00am and turns it off at the close of trading at 19:00. During the holidays and on Sundays Cavendish does not switch on the air-conditioning at all.
Cavendish has to turn on the chillers in the morning in order to operate the air-conditioning system. In order to prevent the chillers from overloading, they start each chiller separately and gradually ramp it up. They utilized the help of a Building Management System (BMS) to regulate the chillers. Cavendish also utilizes a Variable Speed Device (VSD) in order to create the soft start then ramp it up, so it doesn’t run flat out. This aids in the consumption of electricity and ensures that the chillers are not overloaded.
Eskom bills Cavendish on the use of their chillers as per the how many are in operation per 30 minutes. Therefore it will be longer than 30 before the next chiller is switched on. Andrew Voster also made it clear that even one degree to the temperature makes a huge difference. The running of the chillers to create a one degree drop in temperature has a knock-on effect for the chillers, evaporation etc and therefore the temperature is kept at a constant 23 degrees and Cavendish does not go below this temperature.
4) Lighting
Cavendish has an electricity bill that is over R500 000. It was therefore a priority to ensure that this figure is reduced and that Cavendish reduces its electricity consumption by going green. They had numerous discussions with Eskom and were given an incentive that if they reduced their electricity consumption by 10%, Eskom would not load shed Cavendish in future. This was a major incentive and one that Cavendish has been aiming to achieve. It would mean longer trading hours during power cuts and therefore, more profits.
In trying to meet Eskoms 10% reduction incentive, Cavendish faced many challenges. Firstly, Cavendish is not able to control the lighting in the individual shops. Cavendish may only change the lighting in the common areas. This posed a challenge as the majority of the shops want “razzle dazzle” lights to attract shoppers and these take up a significant amount of electricity. Cavendish tried to combat this by enforcing that every shop was only allowed 45 of heat load per metre squared. This was in an effort to get shops to change their lighting.
In a shopping centre there has to be an element of the so-called “pretty lights” in the common areas to attract shoppers. These “pretty light” use 150watt bulbs however Cavendish has replaced all of them with 70watt bulbs in an attempt to cut down on electricity consumption. The standard light bulbs usually take a 50watt bulb. Cavendish has changed all their standard light bulbs to 20watt bulbs. The 20watt bulb creates less heat than the 50watt bulb and therefore Cavendish does not have to use the air-conditioning as much. This is another example of the “knock-on” effect and that every small detail helps when going green.
The outside lamps around the shopping centre used to take 25 watt bulbs. Cavendish had specially made bulbs produced that only require 15 watts. Cavendish then had the 25 watt bulbs removed and replaced them with the new 15 watt bulbs. This may seem a small change but there are 140 lamps around Cavendish so every small change adds up.
Where they could Cavendish has made use of natural light. A prime example of this is in the parking area. There is an abundance of natural light. The only lights that are used in the parking lot are the emergency lights that they are required to have by law. During the power cuts, Cavendish only switches on every third light in the parking area in an attempt to save electricity.The new parking lights that have been put in place in the parking lot draw 8 amps altogether, which is a very minimal amount for the benefit customers receive.
A further measure Cavendish has taken is to instruct the security staff to shut down the escalators at 20:00. If the centre is not particularly busy on a particular day, the security staff will shut down an escalator if there is no traffic in that specific area.
Cavendish is currently working on installing lights that have motion detectors and will only turn on if it detects motion. This will be an effective measure against people who accidentally leave the lights on as they leave work and leave the light on the whole night.
Some possible measures that Cavendish is looking into to cut down on their electrical consumption include the following:
Replacement of Lamps with energy efficient lamps- T5, LEDs, etc
Replacement of magnetic ballasts with electronic ballasts.
Installation of lighting control systems, or upgrading of existing systems
Control of air-conditioning operating times, better use of fresh air in winter, improved control of chilled water in central plants.
Cavendish now only uses 5 of the 8 chillers installed, and achieved 5MW in savings on a project which included 3 other buildings, at a cost of R2,5 MIL
Installation of timers and contractors to control the operation of unitary air-conditioning systems.
Payback period on most of the above have been within 2,5 years.
5) Paint
Recently Cavendish has undergone a massive paint job. Initially a specific paint was selected and given the go-ahead. However, fairly quickly it was discovered that the paint was not environmentally friendly and contained a high level of lead. The paint was taken back and a more suitable, more environmentally paint was utilized.
The company that was contracted to paint Cavendish is called Intaba. It is a local company and the liaison with Cavendish was Murray Paine. The paint that was selected is solvent free which means it contains less than 5% V.O.C’s (Volatile Organic Compounds). This helped Cavendish’s efforts in becoming greener. Cavendish undertook the challenge to become more green with regards to paint as indoor air is three times more polluted than outdoor air, and according to the EPA, is considered to be one of the top 5 hazards to human health. Paints and finishes are among the leading causes.
Paints and finishes release low level toxic emissions into the air for years after application. The source of these toxins is a variety of VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) which, until recently, were essential to the performance of the paint. The benefits of environmentally friendly paint are numerous and include the following:
Reduced toxins benefit everyone’s health, including those with allergies and chemical sensitivities. The environment benefits as it reduces landfill, groundwater and ozone depleting contaminants. Environmentally friendly paint is also very effective as low-VOC products perform well in terms of coverge, scubability and hideability (covering flaws on previous coats). The paint Cavendish utilized is water-based which ensured that it was easy to clean up with soap and water. The environmentally friendly paint contained little or no hazardous fumes. Low odour during application; no odour once cured. No off-gassing. Painted areas can be occupied sooner with no odour complaints. The new environmentally friendly paint is not deemed hazardous; this greatly simplifies the cleanup and disposal.