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The combination of a depressed economy, ageing and deteriorating infrastructure, scarce natural resources and the disastrous effects of climate change is raising the stakes for the property and facilities management sector to drive sustainable and environmentally conscious solutions, says Leon Kok, COO, Redefine Properties.

This comes as Redefine Properties is recognised for excellence in its exploration and implementation of sustainable water and facilities management solutions in the past year.

Notably, Redefine’s innovation in the use of ground- and rainwater at its Wonderboom Junction Shopping Centre in the city of Tshwane was a standout example of smart conservation in action, securing the award for excellence in facilities management at the recent South African Facilities Management Awards. Walter Nel, Regional Portfolio Facilities Manager at Redefine Properties also walked away with the most coveted award: facilities manager of the year.

The Wonderboom project not only addressed the risk of flood damage, which is exacerbated by being located in an area subject to high levels of groundwater, but also supported Redefine’s overall goal to reduce the amount of water withdrawn from municipal and borehole sources. This installation was commissioned in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, and it is especially noteworthy that the success of this means that in future water can be acquired from sources other than bulk municipal water connections.

Furthermore, the harvesting, storage and reticulation of rainwater to end-user demand points were devised with locally available products in mind to ease future replacement component availability and to create a template for implementations at other sites in the future. The water harvesting and reticulation system is also supported by solar PV energy.

Kok says that Wonderboom’s bulk rainwater harvesting process currently delivers 12% of the annual building demand and the remainder of the building water demand will be supplied from groundwater sources to alleviate pressure and dependence on bulk council water connections.

Kok believes that projects such as this are crucial to ensuring available natural resources are collectively optimised, with the benefits of these immediate savings stretching beyond the boundaries of Redefine’s assets to help create a more sustainable future. “We applaud the efforts of our facilities management team to drive innovation and keep the environment top of mind. This is firmly in line with our commitment to be an ESG leader in the real estate markets in which we operate.”

For more information contact: https://www.redefine.co.za/

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