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Recycling, painting contributes to Five-Star Green rating

Posted On Tuesday, 24 September 2013 11:54 Published by Commercial Property News
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the R2.7 billion Standard Bank development in Rosebank, Johannesburg, is not only an impressive addition to the Johannesburg skyline, but also a prime example of the growing trend towards “green” buildings in South Africa. 

Standard Bank RosebankDulux Trade’s Ecosure range contributed significantly to the development through being the selected coatings specified for the project. 

Situated on the corner of Oxford and Bolton Roads in Rosebank, this grand new building development comprises of 70,000 square metres of state-of-the-art office space and 3,900 parking bays spread across a nine story building, an eleven story building and five super-basement levels. A central multi-volume atrium extends the public piazza into the building complex.

It is anticipated that up to 5,000 people will be working in the new building complex by the end of 2013. In addition to the abundance of excellent office and working space, there are also rest and meeting rooms, as well as multiple pause areas. There are also superb access and visibility features as well as more than 400 indigenous trees in the external garden that features a linear water feature with granite rocks recycled from a quarry.

Lining up with Standard Bank's philosophy, the architects concentrated on improving contact between the inside and the outside, lowering the boundary between the office space and the outside elements, with everything designed around the central atrium.

Without doubt, this development is a landmark contribution to Rosebank – Johannesburg's third high rise node after the CBD and Sandton – and is ideally located close to the Rosebank Gautrain station, the Bus Rapid Transit system and the M1 highway.

According to Moncardo Chitray, owner of Durban-based Montreal Projects, the main painting contractor, the Standard Bank Rosebank project required "serious teamwork, dedication and commitment" between Durban and Johannesburg to get the job done. At its peak, the 18-month project had 55 painters on site.

"The Green Building Council's green-rating requirements and Standard Bank's stringent health and safety requirements made the project quite challenging, but everything went well and we were very pleased with the end result," said Chitray.

"This really was a great team effort between ourselves and our team in Durban, our team in Johannesburg, the paint distributor in Johannesburg and Dulux itself."

The building complex has elicited considerable media coverage – both print and electronic – with many journalists, talk show hosts, readers and listeners commenting on the impressively imposing nature of the development. Commentators have stressed the eco-friendly qualities of the development.

Initiated in June 2010, the Standard Bank Rosebank development featured a variety of the country's major contractors and suppliers including WBHO (main building contractor) and Grosskopff, Lombart, Hybrechts & Associates (architects). Montreal Projects was the main painting contractor and the main coatings used included Dulux Trade's Ecosure Primer, Ecosure Matt, Ecosure Silk and Ecosure Eggshell Enamel.

EnviroWash system and container recycling vital part of environmentally-friendly process 

With green rating being one of Standard Bank's fundamental requirements for the development – which has a Five Star Green Rating from the Green Building Council of SA - green standards were introduced to the project from the beginning of the painting and decorating process, right through to the disposal of containers used.

According to Quintis van der Merwe of the Dulux Specialist Paint Centre in Wynberg – suppliers of paint to the main painting contractor - "this is one of the proudest projects we have ever worked on."

Throughout the preparation and painting process – which lasted around 18 months – there was a total focus on eco-friendly practises and behaviour. A number of Dulux Trade's special "EnviroWash" systems were utilised on the site, by the main painting contractor and by smaller painting contractors responsible for steelwork and walls.

The Dulux Trade Environmental Wash System ("EnviroWash") converts waterborne paint washings into clear water and sold waste, allowing for easy and safe control and disposal.

Significantly, Dulux Trade was one of the "silver" founding members of the Green Building Council of South Africa, a factor that has seen Dulux products specified for many of South Africa' top green star rated buildings in recent years. "The painting element of this major project ran extremely smoothly with the Ecosure range providing excellent colour consistency," said van der Merwe.

Stressing the lengths that were gone to in order to ensure maximum eco-friendliness, he said that in addition to all clean-ups being done on site via the EnviroWash system, all paint containers were taken away and recycled by a waste disposal company which issued a certificate of compliance to guarantee that the proper recycling processes had indeed been followed.

Last modified on Tuesday, 24 September 2013 23:39

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