Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Electricity demand sparks green trend
THE SOUTH AFRICAN National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi) is encouraging building owners to comply with the new building energy performance regulations in the face of high electricity demand.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) gazetted regulations for the mandatory display and submission of Energy Performance Certificates for buildings two years ago.
As an agency of the department, Sanedi had been tasked with maintaining a national building Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) register in accordance with these regulations. Building owners have until December 7 to comply with the regulations.
UWC’s Earth Science senior lecturer Dr Sumaya Clarke said given the importance of Earth Day, citizens need to make an effort to reduce the impacts of human activities. One way is by reducing the carbon footprint of buildings.
“We need to preserve our planet for the future generation. Keeping it safe and clean is important. We need to move towards the reuse of materials or the use of more natural resources such as soil, stones and wood/timber to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings.
“Greenhouse gas emissions contribute to long-term temperature increases in the atmosphere – in other words, global warming. Hence, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings by improving their energy performance is key to meeting the goals that have been set for the country in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Clarke said.
Clarke added that building owners needed to take the regulation seriously as it would raise awareness regarding the current levels of emissions and potential impacts on the environment.
“We run the risk of building owners not knowing what their greenhouse gas emissions are, and possibly increasing their impacts on global climate change. So in my opinion, the compliance of EPC will raise awareness regarding the levels of emissions.”