Green building certification in South Africa: evaluating adoption, greenwashing and location clusters trends.

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the emerging growth trends of green certification in South Africa. It adopts a quantitative descriptive approach to exploring the growth trends and patterns in Green Building certification across South Africa. Variables including the location, owners, rating star level, and rating categories were collected for a sample size of 510 case studies, identified using a purposive sampling technique. The data which spanned 12 years between 2011-2023 was analysed using google spreadsheet and SPSS, to develop time series charts, bar charts, stacked bar charts, and a chi-square test. The study found an increasing growth in green certification adoption in South Africa. It also saw a significant geographical and ownership dispersion alongside a growing inclusion of existing buildings. This study provides the first empirical exploration of the trends in green building certification across South Africa with evidence of the strength of the Green Star rating against the chances of greenwashing the building sector.