Hotel Verde, Cape Town; the airport-hotel managed by Verde Hotels, Africa’s greenest hotel group, recently re-certified with a Green Star SA Existing Building Performance Certification from the Green Building Council of South Africa.
According to the Green Building Council of South Africa, the score of 92 points (a six star rating) received by Hotel Verde is the highest Green Star Existing Building Performance score achieved to date.
Background Information
Hotel Verde, operating since 2013, is a four star hotel located 400m from Cape Town International Airport. Hotel Verde is unique in that it offers sustainability, luxury and convenience as one. Home to 145 rooms and 7 conference venues, the hotel attempts to uphold the status of being Africa’s greenest hotel by keeping sustainability as its heartbeat. From the get-go, it was the desire of owners Mario and Annemarie Delicio, as well as the project team, to build a hotel that would lead the way for other new and existing hotels to be built and operated in a sustainable and energy efficient manner. Therefore, the hotel was not only designed from below the ground up to be as ecological as possible, but the hotel also drives this concept through daily operational practices and decisions including that of waste management, the procurement chain and staff training. All accommodation and conferencing at Hotel Verde is 100% carbon neutral. The hotel is also approximately 70% more efficient than a standard Cape Town hotel with a renewable energy generation making up 10% of total consumption.
Sustainable building features:
- Vertical axis wind turbines
- PV panels on North facing roof and façade
- Energy generating gym equipment
- Elevators with regenerative braking
- Intelligent Building Management System
- Energy efficient HVAC system using geothermal ground loops coupled with heat pumps for central heating/cooling and domestic hot water
- Energy and/or water efficient equipment – Energy Star certified
- Motion/occupancy controlled lighting
- Main power isolation switch to each bedroom, office and meeting room
- Demand controlled ventilation to bedrooms
- Grey water recycling plant
- Rainwater and subsoil drainage water harvesting
- Small urban farming setup/Aquaponics
- Recycling and Bokashi composting area
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