Research information: The green buildings for Africa programme

L J Grobler and Vinod Singh introduce a new, voluntary initiative, Green Buildings for Africa, which seeks to establish incentives to improve the environmental performance of commercial buildings. The programme will reward property owners who create and maintain high environmental performance standards. This will be based on an assessment of building's environmental performance encompassing the design of the building and its services, operation and maintenance of the building. By involving building owners, the programme intends to demonstrate marketing incentives and financial savings can be made while improving health conditions and reducing environmental impact, thus creating a win-win solution for owners and occupants. A pilot programme of ten buildings is under development.