The membership gives credibility to SA’s green building initiatives and allows the local council to make use of the experience of council members from developed countries.

The World Green Building Council is a nonprofit organisation working to transform the global property industry towards sustainability. It works through its members, the country councils, which are leading the movement to environmentally responsible building practices in their countries.

Andrew Bowerbank, executive director of the world body, says the council provides leadership and a global forum to accelerate market transformation from traditional, inefficient building practices to new generation, high-performance buildings.

Bruce Kerswill, chairman of the Green Building Council of SA (GBCSA), says the world body is a co-ordinating body for the national councils.

There are 12 full members and 35 “emerging” members. SA was accepted into the council last month at a world GBC meeting in Melbourne, Australia.

Kerswill says the GBCSA had to meet certain criteria in order to be accepted. The world GBC had to be sure the local council was properly up and running, that the organisation was independent and nonprofit, its finances were in order and the council was financially sustainable.

Kerswill says it took a year for the SA council to be accepted into the world GBC and SA has received compliments from the world body.

“We are now full members alongside countries such as the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Brazil and India, proving that SA is by no means lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of green building,” says Kerswill.

Bowerbank says buildings are responsible for about 23% of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Global awareness of the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental degradation is driving the need for rapid formation of green building councils around the world,” he says.

The GBCSA hosts its annual convention and exhibition at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from November 2-4. Kerswill says they will also be launching the Green Star SA rating tool at the convention. The tool sets standards for green buildings, and enables an objective assessment of as to how “green” a building is.