Vodacom subscribes to a philosophy of purposeful and continuous improvement – and its regional head office building in Century City is a testament to this, having undergone several enhancements since it was first constructed. The organisation has taken the step to be more purpose led, which aims to deliver on one of the pillars “planet”. The pursuit of an EBP rating fits in well with this objective, by creating and managing more sustainable working environments.
The Vodacom Century City building consists of 3 floors of office space, with external open parking and basement parking. The office development has a GLA of around 9500m². Located within the “happening” Century City Precinct, allowing for great public transport opportunities. There is a central atrium area where natural daylight penetrates through a large skylight to the lower levels - 81% of the occupied space has a clear line of sight to external views, including views into the day lit atrium.
In 2012 WSP oversaw the construction of a 500 kWp single-roof photovoltaic solar array on the building. The installation comprised of about 2 000 mono crystalline solar panels onto SolarWorld Sundeck and 100% recycled Suntabs roof sheeting over a 3 600 m² area. At the time, the project was said to be the largest array of solar panels on a single building in Africa and formed part of Vodacom’s aim of reducing its energy consumption and carbon footprint.
More recently, in 2017 Vodacom embarked on an extensive refurbishment of their Century City building - aimed at creating meaningful spaces within its office building, by using a combination of great design, materials and consideration for how the occupants will utilise the facilities.
The strategy behind the refurbishments was in recognition that green buildings are not solely about reducing energy, but are also about consuming less water, using less and more sustainable materials and resources, reducing waste, improving air and light quality, the restoration of habitat, reducing dependency on vehicles and much more.
During the refurbishment, WSP oversaw the design and implementation of a number of environmentally sustainable design features which allows the building to be on a path for a better future. However, these features are only efficient and valuable when the building is operated in support of the design intent. In line with this, WSP has provided guidance to Vodacom relating to sustainable operations, aimed at maximising on efficiencies of the environmentally sustainable design features – and continues to support Vodacom in monitoring the performance of the building towards attaining the targeted Existing Building Performance Green Star rating.
