Mobile operator Vodacom plans to build one of Africa's greenest buildings to house an innovation team focused on developing alternative energy solutions.
The joint initiative with parent company Vodafone will see locally-developed solutions being shared across Vodafone's global markets, to help reduce its carbon emissions worldwide.
Planned for completion in the third quarter of this year, the green innovation centre will see suppliers and experts from various fields tasked with developing energy-efficient technology. The centre, which will cost in the region of R24 million, is based at the company's head office, in Midrand.
Speaking at a media briefing introducing the centre, Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys said having operations across Africa meant electricity supply was often a problem.
“In emerging markets, diesel generators are often used to provide energy to base stations that are off the electricity grid, so more efficient energy solutions can play a key role in reducing carbon emissions from such power sources.”
He added that base stations sometimes have two generators in case one failed, resulting in significant carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. “We participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project last year and found we emit almost 400 000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.”
At the company's results presentation in May, Uys said it had added 1 086 3G base stations to the network, to keep up with the growth in demand for data services.
To help tackle the additional emissions, Uys said the company had committed to reducing CO2 emissions by 5% per base station annually.
“Building sustainable, environmentally-focused systems and infrastructure is critical in the current economic and environmental climate,” he noted.
“Not only will the innovation centre help to deliver energy savings across the Vodafone group, but it will also save us money. Business can no longer look at sustainability as a nice-to-have element of operations - it is a critical aspect of our business strategy that adds enormous value to the bottom line.”
The centre will be powered with renewable energy, using cooling and heating technologies. “We are working with the Green Building Council of SA to ensure the building is accredited according to the Green Star rating system,” said Uys.
Vodacom hopes to achieve a six-star green rating, which Uys said would make it one of the greenest buildings, both in Africa and the Vodafone group as a whole.
He pointed to the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference, taking place in Durban, noting there were plans to have another centre built in KwaZulu-Natal in time for the COP17 event.
According to Uys, the innovation centre forms part of its global approach to create mobile technology that has a positive impact on the environment - and its business offering. “If we are able to aggressively drive efficiency and cost reductions in this area, we can pass these reductions on to our customers, a core component of this strategy.”
Grand design
Architect Xavier Huyberechts, executive partner at GLH & Associates, said designing the building required bringing in new technologies and new ways of working.
“When Vodacom approached us, it was an incredible opportunity to get involved in the building, but also a massive challenge. You have to challenge everything about the way you work, your way of thinking, and how you use things.”
The 350-square-metre centre will house an innovation showroom, experimental area, monitoring area and video conferencing room for collaboration.
It has no concrete foundation, relying instead on rock store as thermal mass in the foundation of the building, saving 30% in concrete and providing an under-floor cooling mechanism.
The centre makes use of two solar technologies: a photovoltaic installation and a solar thermal system that will run the building's air conditioning.
According to Eric Noir, technical director at WSP Africa, the photovoltaic system generates enough energy to power the entire centre. To avoid using batteries, which are costly, require high maintenance and contain hazardous materials, they integrated the power supply into the rest of the campus, so any additional energy generated would feed into Vodacom's buildings next door.
Various water-saving strategies have also been used, from watering plants via condensation to reusing wash water and collecting rain water for toilet flushing.
“Green building projects are very site-specific,” said Huyberechts. “You can't just copy something from one site to the next. You have to address every single element in that specific building.“
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