The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) has awarded Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) a Net Zero Carbon Level 1: Building Emissions certification for the standardized design of small clinics. The development of a standardized design for frequently designed public assets such as small clinics is a mandate given to ISA by cabinet in 2021 for the purposes of accelerating planning and delivery of social infrastructure, developing updated cost estimates, and reducing professional service costs for frequently delivered public infrastructure.
The Net Zero Carbon Level 1 Building Emissions certificate is defined as ‘A building that is highly energy-efficient, and the remaining energy use is from renewable energy, preferably onsite but also oft-site where absolutely necessary, so that there are zero net carbon emissions on an annual basis (Net Zero)!’ The updated designs provided by ISA mean that a small clinic will be able to cover its own operational electrical consumption with its own embedded renewable energy system which leads to a design that reduces onsite bulk service provision and greatly reduced operational costs, over the building’s lifecycle.
