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New Property Greening Service - 31 October 2007

An increasing number of property owners are recognising the benefits of ‘greening’ their property portfolios. This is according to Keith Craddock, Operations Director of Spire Property Group, who provide property management services to private property owners.

‘Greening’ properties results in a more sustainable environment with less energy consumption, as well as lower operating costs and healthier places to work or live in.

The concept of greening buildings is still in its infancy in South Africa, and Spire is taking a lead by offering clients a ‘greening’ service through a division to be known as “The Green Team�.

According to Craddock, who is guiding the initiative, the Green Team is focusing on environmentally friendly office fit outs, which includes everything from partitioning, painting, carpeting, electrics and glazing to window blinds.

“The team is currently moving up the green building learning curve and has already completed a number of office fit outs at different buildings we manage. We are using environmentally friendly paint and carpeting, and on the electrical side we are looking at energy saving fittings of light/motion sensors at one of our green office installations. We are also looking at water efficient fittings on the plumbing side. There is a wide range of measures that can be used, depending on budget, without incurring massive expenditure.�

Craddock, who is responsible for the pricing and planning of the fit outs, will be attending the Green Build ’07 Conference in Chicago in November, including a one-day workshop on green office fit outs. “This workshop, which is aimed at design team members, tenants or owners, will bring us right up to speed with global cutting edge practice.

“In South Africa there is currently a limited supply of ‘green’ products,� explains Craddock. “The Chicago conference will have over 600 exhibitors and we will be keeping our eyes open for ideas and potential new products that we could use in South Africa.

“In the New Year the Green Team will be ready to offer its services on a wider scale to property owners who wish to go ‘green’. In the interim we are building up knowledge and experience, as well as bringing our sub contractors up to speed and we will be significantly boosting the team’s capabilities in the new year.�

There is a rapidly growing world-wide movement to go ‘green’ and Spire is looking to take a lead position.

“Spire has been actively involved in the formation of the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) and has made funding and office space available to the council.� Our Managing Director, Bruce Kerswill, was recently elected Chairman of the GBCSA Board�, says Craddock.

“At Spire, our emphasis is on providing a highly effective service to our clients. We are confident that our unique Green Team will offer property owners the option of easily and conveniently converting their buildings to green compliant ones – thereby keeping up with international standards,� concludes Craddock.

Source: Cape Business News