An investigation into the mechanisms that are steering large property owning organisations to implement green building features
Master Thesis
2012
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University of Cape Town
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Corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR/CER) are terms that are often used to brand a company in a positive light. This does not necessarily mean that every organisation implements social and environmental initiatives with the same degree of vigour and commitment. South African property owning organisations are becoming increasingly aware that being socially and environmentally responsible can encompass the design and operation of their buildings. It is for this reason that these types of organisations are searching for ways to implement green building initiatives in their property portfolios. The implementation of environmentally friendly/green initiatives is viewed as Socially Responsible Property Investments (SRPI). Green building initiatives are slowly being adopted by some property owning organisations in South Africa, especially after the formal establishment of the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) in 2007. Implementation of green building initiatives have been met with multiple barriers by property owning organisations, such as lack of education by the professional team with regards to cost of green features and the processes involved in gaining green certification. Three prominent property owning organisations in Cape Town, two corporate and the other an academic institution were chosen as suitable case studies and analysed. Multiple respondents were interviewed for each case study and asked questions regarding their social and environmental initiatives and to what degree, if at all, they are attempting to implement green building features in their buildings. These questions were used to compare the organisation's actions to the content of its CSR policy. It was found that the adoption of green building initiatives was based on the type of property owning organisation, be it corporate or non-corporate. The property owning type has resulted in differing motives for implementation of green initiatives; however there are some common motives regardless of the company type, such as the financial feasibility of implementing said initiatives. The final results of this research revealed that although there is a small gap between a property owning company's CSR policy to that of its stated social and environmental initiatives, the gap between the CSR policy and its green building initiatives is still relatively large.
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Nurick, S. 2012. An investigation into the mechanisms that are steering large property owning organisations to implement green building features. University of Cape Town.