Hotel Verde. We have a responsibility as a company, as an employer and as a visitor on this planet PROJECT

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1 PROJECT Hotel Verde Owner and project team alike are passionate about sustainability and are using the hotel and its cutting edge innovations and technologies to demonstrate what can be done towards a more sustainable future HOTEL VERDE Airport Industria Cape Town DEVELOPERS/OWNERS Dematech PROJECT MANAGERS The Atvantage Group ARCHITECTS Heinrich Gerstner Harding Architects QUANTITY SURVEYORS Alan Chandler & Associates CONSULTING ENGINEERS: CIVIL & STRUCTURAL Moroff & Kuhne ELECTRICAL Driger Consulting ICT WSP Consulting GEOTHERMAL Andrew Hammock & Powell Geothermal Design Engineers COMMISSIONING AGENTS SMEC (incorporating Vela VKE) OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY CONSULTANTS Eppen-Burger & Associates SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANTS Ecolution Consulting SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CONSULTANT Solid Green Consulting LEED CONSULTANT Ecocentric URBAN LANDSCAPE Sibane HOTEL OPERATORS Bon Hotels MAIN CONTRACTOR Stefanuttii Stocks We have a responsibility as a company, as an employer and as a visitor on this planet to live as sustainably as possible. This is the only way we can survive long-term and hand over to our children in a responsible manner. Developers/Owners Comment Mario and Annemarie Delicio of Dematech are the owners behind Hotel Verde Africa s greenest hotel. Dedicated and passionate about sustainability, they have transformed what was initially just a sensible business proposition into a showcase for some of the most advanced environmentally conscious technological installations as well as construction and operation practices in the world. Construction on Hotel Verde, which is a part of the recently launched BON Hotels group, began over a year ago just outside Cape Town International Airport, with a team of contractors and experts dedicated to finding the alternative. If you look at what can be done from a green angle you look at energy, water and waste reduction, Delicio explains. You then take each of these areas and work out how to implement alternatives, generating your own electricity for example. Then you need to explore the extent to which you can go. And the team at Hotel Verde has gone to the greatest extent yet seen on the continent from locally sourced suppliers to sustainable practices on the building site to multiple ways in which they can generate their own electricity and reduce waste to almost zero. PHOTOGRAPHY Couresty of Hotel Verde Opposite Page: Three vertical axis wind turbines are installed at the hotel entrance 22 Hotel Verde

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3 Mario and Annemarie Delicio of Dematech are the owners behind Hotel Verde Africa s greenest hotel We have an advantage because we are starting from scratch. We could go from choosing recycled bricks and insulation, to installing a geothermal field, coupled to ground-source heat pumps. When you build new you can plan much more than if you retrofit an existing building. Andre Harms, Sustainability Manager and founder of Ecolution Consulting, is a trained mechanical engineer and the expertise behind some of the more technical aspects of the building. Having spent 15 months at the South African Research Centre in Antarctica, Harms knows what it is to value everyday resources and is applying this dedication to each facet of the project. We have the opportunity to change the status quo here, he says. We have looked at different ways of doing everything, right from the word go. This includes the photovoltaic (solar) panels cleverly positioned to provide shade as well as power. They are mounted on the north façade of the building so as to not only generate electricity but create shading for the windows that get the most sun. Another is to dramatically reduce the amount of concrete required by utilising Cobiax void formers recycled plastic balls placed strategically within the concrete slabs that are required for the various floors. They displace the concrete, saving approximately 535 m 3 or 1284 ton while maintaining the structural integrity. Hotel Verde also boasts a sophisticated grey water recycling plant that will contribute towards a 37% reduction of potable water use. We have run a network of pipes through the building in order to reticulate the grey water, collect it and supply it to the toilets, Harms explains. They will also be utilising a rainwater filtering and capture system to provide water for the car wash and irrigation. The elevators will run on a regenerative drive, which will allow for about 30% of the input energy to be recaptured and fed back into the building and doubleglazed windows with spectrally selective glass will filter out hot rays, so less heat enters the building reducing the need for air-conditioning. In order to bypass the need for standard airconditioning systems, traditionally one of the biggest energy consumers, Hotel Verde will 24 Hotel Verde

4 The largest water saving initiative implemented in the design of the hotel is the grey water recycling plant utilise ground source heat pumps made by 100 holes drilled about 76m into the ground, where the temperature is a consistent 19 degrees Centigrade. German supplier, AGO Energy, will install a complex network of piping and equipment specifically designed for Hotel Verde that uses the earth as a heat source in winter and heat sink in summer, boosting efficiency and dramatically reducing operational costs. There is no other hotel in Africa that has gone to the extent that we are hoping to achieve, Delicio says. But going green is not just about the building, it s about every aspect of the operation; zero waste to landfill for example. We might never reach that, but with the ideas we have in mind we will come pretty close. Open to the public in August 2013, the hotel plans to incentivise guests with credit notes and bar tabs for those who utilise towels more than once, for example, or don t use the airconditioning. It s about getting customers involved and making them a part of the whole green thinking philosophy, Delicio explains. Guy Stehlik, founder of BON Hotels, who will manage and operate Hotel Verde, says that the value of being involved in a project of this nature, plus its learning in terms of future hotels, is invaluable. The three cornerstones of BON Hotels are Good people. Good thinking. Good feeling. Hotel Verde and the philosophy behind it is where the Good thinking lies. This is definitely one of the most innovative hotels in the country and we are thrilled to be involved in a project of this nature. Despite the fact that this is the first of its kind, the Hotel Verde team doesn t want it to be a secret; they want to share their convictions with anyone who ll listen. We might have the slogan Africa s Greenest Hotel right now, but we hope it won t be for long, says Harms. We want to show the continent what can be done. We want to challenge the industry as a whole. Enviropedia Water Conservation Award At Hotel Verde, the utmost is being done throughout the design and construction phase as well as with operational policies,once running, to save water on every front. The hotel is pursuing a Gold rating on the LEED green building rating system for New Buildings and Hotel Verde 25

5 The hotel is pursuing a Gold rating on the LEED green building rating system for New Buildings and Construction Construction as well as a Platinum rating on the LEED for existing buildings rating tool. The water saving measures in place range from several significant high tech systems to many small initiatives implemented throughout the hotel that all add up to a significant saving. The implemented water saving measures combined amount to a sizable estimated 37% potable water saving measured against the stringent LEED Green Building baseline. Throughout the construction phase, the contractor has been made aware that water is to be conserved as much as possible. Water pipes and hoses have been monitored for leaks and constantly repaired as needed and subsoil drainage water has been used for temporary landscaping establishment and irrigation. The largest water saving initiative implemented in the design of the hotel is the grey water recycling plant. Water from the showers and bath tubs as well as condensate from the HVAC fan coil units is drained to a state of the art grey water recycling plant where it is filtered and sterilized. The processed grey water is then reticulated throughout the hotel and used for the flushing of all the toilets. The next most significant measure introduced in the design to save water is the rainwater harvesting and subsoil water drainage use. The rainwater from approximately three quarters of the roof is captured and passed through a filter before being channelled to an impressive 40,000 litre stainless steel tank in the basement of the building. The basement extends below the water table and so all water that would otherwise want to migrate into the basement is filtered and collected in sumps before it also is pumped into the 40,000 litre tank. The water from the tank is then used for outdoor uses such as irrigation, car washing and the cleaning of hardscapes. Not only are the hotel s gardens and landscapes irrigated with rainwater and subsoil drainage water but they are irrigated with a drip irrigation system. All vegetation planted is indigenous or endemic and waterwise. All toilets in the hotel are dual flush and the urinals are waterless. Fittings and fixtures throughout the building are low flow and only a select few of the upmarket rooms have baths. In the laundry washing cycle, the water from the final rinse cycle, which is practically clean, is used for the 26 Hotel Verde

6 At Hotel Verde it is believed that if you can t measure it, you can t manage it pre-wash cycle of the next load. No evaporative cooling is used in the building. At Hotel Verde it is believed that if you can t measure it, you can t manage it. For this reason all water, electricity and gas is sub-metered in order to track how much of each resource is being used at all times in each sub-system and area of the building. This information will be automatically tracked and recorded by the advanced building management system. The building maintenance manager will have access to this data and will then be able to identify where efficiency is dropping and perform the required maintenance. The hotel owner and operators are passionate about saving energy and water and believe that it is of no use to have a state of the art building that is run and maintained suboptimally. An extremely detailed operations and maintenance plan with be available to the operator to help correctly use and maintain all systems within the building in order to maintain the highest possible degree of efficiency across the board. The vision and passion for looking after the environment and conserving energy and water will be passed down to the staff. Staff across every discipline will be trained and incentivised to adopt a lifestyle of sustainability, not only at work but also in their own homes and communities. This will be achieved through regular training workshops, education programmes and performance reviews. Owner and project team alike are passionate about sustainability and are using the hotel and its cutting edge innovations and technologies to demonstrate what can be done towards a more sustainable future as well as to educate people of the need to move in this direction. Green notes and display screens strategically placed throughout the hotel will describe sustainable principles implemented. Guest rooms will have a dedicated TV channel for displaying educational videos on sustainability and statistics on the energy and water use of the hotel. Guests will be incentivised with a credit system to reuse towels and linen and not use airconditioning thus increasing their awareness of the energy and water saved in doing so. Tours of the hotel will be offered to visitors and guests. Programmes are being developed with schools in the local community to give tours to and help educate children. Hotel Verde is strategically Hotel Verde 27

7 placed to play a key role in the future of green building and sustainability in South Africa. At a recent award cermony, Hotel Verde won the prestigious Eco-Logic Award for Water Conservation, highlighting the many initiatives they have instituted to save water. Electricity Saving Measures One of the primary causes for greenhouse gas emissions is the production of energy in the form of electricity. Electricity usage can be reduced by using more efficient equipment, using equipment wisely as well as by utilising renewable resources such and wind and solar power. Hotel Verde has taken all of the above measures to reduce the use of municipal electricity and hence greenhouse gas emissions. Water use can also be indirectly linked to greenhouse gas emissions due to the processing and transport of the water. Similarly, by reducing the amount of new materials used in construction the negative effects of the process of manufacturing products from virgin materials, including mining, manufacturing and transport, are avoided. The following are several ways in which the hotel has improved efficiency and found alternate sources of necessary resources, and hence reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The hotel uses energy saving mini bar fridges, energy efficient LED lighting throughout the building as well as Energy Star rated office equipment and dishwashers. Each guestroom has a main power cut-off switch which is activated whenever the room key card is removed from its slot, preventing unnecessary electricity use when the room is unoccupied. Furthermore, the hotel will use energy efficient Kone elevators fitted with regenerative braking that recover 30% of the input energy. The heating and cooling for Hotel Verde s HVAC system and domestic hot water makes use of a state of the art system utilising geothermal ground loops coupled to highly efficient heat pumps to achieve large energy savings. As a means of reducing municipal electricity use through the use of renewable resources three vertical axis wind turbines are installed at the hotel entrance. Furthermore, Hotel Verde dons 220 locally produced photovoltaic panels on the roof and northern façade, resulting in an anticipated production of 78,000 kwh/ year. The combination of these two renewable energy producing measures will contribute to a minimum of 14% of the hotel s electricity requirements. This is a significant reduction on the municipal load required. 28 Hotel Verde

8 ADVERTISERS ON THIS PROJECT: AfriSam South Africa The leading black-controlled construction materials group in southern Africa The Atvantage Group Project Managers The hotel uses a grey water recycling system whereby drain water from baths and showers is collected, recycled, and then used for toilet flushing. This will result in a significant reduction in municipal water consumption of approximately 1.5 million litres per annum. Rainwater and sub-soil drainage water are used for all external requirements such as irrigation. Washing machines will use the water from the final rinse cycle for the pre-wash cycle of the following load. Hotel Verde is also fitted with low flow taps and shower heads, and makes use of drip irrigation. A sustainability orientated approach to landscaping has been adopted at the hotel. Exclusively indigenous and endemic vegetation has been used with preference to carbon capturing plants. The roof of the reception and lobby area has been made a vegetated roof. Not only is this aesthetically pleasing but it also creates habitat for bird life and thermally insulates the area below. 50% of the building materials used in the construction of the hotel were sourced locally, saving energy and emissions connected with transporting them. Furthermore, Cobiax void formers were introduced into several of the low load carrying slabs saving 1284 tons of concrete. These slabs are therefore lighter, reducing the depth of foundation required. The Cobiax spheres are also made from recycled plastic. Another aspect that displays Hotel Verde s dedication to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is the sustainable manner in which it will be operated. The staff of the hotel will carpool and use public transport wherever possible and there will be preferred parking bays reserved for guests driving hybrid fuel saving vehicles. Guests will be incentivised to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle by offering them rewards for refraining from using certain energy consuming luxuries, such as air-conditioning. The hotel has adopted a medium term target of zero waste to landfill and a strict waste management program will be implemented during operation. Waste will be sorted on site and recycled and all organic waste will be composted, both on and off site. From renewable energy generation, to energy efficient equipment and practices, to water conservation, to innovative approaches to the promotion of sustainable living amongst staff and guests, there is no doubt that Hotel Verde is making a monumental effort to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Hotel Verde 29