Southern Africa celebrates KZN resort achieving benchmark in best practice for green buildings

The end of August 2026 saw the construction and building industry celebrate Club Med South Africa Beach & Safari’s new green building benchmark with the first 4-Star Green Star SA V2 Design Certification. The new resort in Tinley Manor achieved the 4-Star Design Certification under the Green Building Council South Africa's (GBCSA) Green Star New Build and Major Refurbishment V2 Pilot tool. This marks an industry first for the country's next-generation green building framework.

 
The V2 Pilot 4-Star rating is recognised by GBCSA as Best Practice and is considered a more rigorous rating and achievement than its version 1 equivalent rating. Collins Developments, formerly known as Collins Residential, oversaw the development of the resort, working alongside M3 Africa as project managers, Solid Green Consulting as sustainability consultants, and a wider group of professional and construction teams to translate a new sustainability framework across a complex hospitality development.

The Green Star submission covered six principal building packages spanning approximately 31,817 square metres of gross floor area. These included the central Village, guest accommodation blocks, the Exclusive Collection clubhouse, hotel suites, the convention centre and staff accommodation. Each has different operational, occupancy and technical demands, but the certification required the project to demonstrate a consistent sustainability performance across the submission as a whole.

That challenge was heightened by the fact that Green Star V2 was still in its pilot phase. Club Med SA was one of the early projects working with the new tool, helping to establish how it could be applied to large hospitality developments with multiple building types. The Club Med SA resort, as the first hospitality project achieving Green Star New Build V2 certification, has directly honed and tested this trailblazing sustainability standard. It is also the first certification of multiple building typologies with a single Green Star tool. The assessment introduced mandatory minimum requirements, with fourteen requirements across sustainability themes including energy, water, carbon emissions, air quality, materials, resilience, place and ecology needing to be satisfied before the project could claim a single point towards its rating.

From the outset, this project demanded a different way of thinking about delivery," says Chris du Toit, Project Lead at Collins Developments. "We structured the resort into ten specialist construction packages to maintain close control over quality, programme and accountability. That flexibility also meant sustainability had to be embedded consistently across every package, consultant and contractor. This rating shows what is possible when those requirements form part of the construction strategy from the beginning.

Sustainability therefore sat on the critical path through design, procurement and construction. Requirements ranged from energy, water and responsible sourcing to construction waste, commissioning, sub-metering, indoor environmental quality and a new focus introduced by Green Star V2 on climate resilience. On a multi-building submission, performance and evidence had to align across the different packages for the relevant credits to be secured.

"The sheer scale and complexity of the project is what makes this recognition stand apart," says Darroll McKeown, Director and Project Lead at M3 Africa. "We were applying the V2 pilot tool across different building typologies, separate construction packages and a large multidisciplinary team. It required continuous coordination between design, procurement, construction and sustainability, with the whole team maintaining the same standard throughout."

The certification also records measurable performance outcomes. The resort buildings were modelled to use 60% less energy annually than the Green Star SA V2 baseline and approximately 40% less potable water. Comprehensive energy and water sub-metering has been incorporated to support ongoing performance management, while upfront carbon was assessed during design and at least 75% of the site area incorporates strategies to reduce the heat island effect.

Responsible construction practices also formed part of the assessment, including environmental management, construction waste diversion and sustainability training, alongside measures focused on healthier indoor environments and climate resilience. Georgina Smit, CEO of the Green Building Council South Africa, congratulated Collins Developments and all those involved in the project saying, "On behalf of GBCSA, a huge well done is due to the project team on achieving this excellent industry first! This is a major milestone for both the green building and property industry. It symbolises bravery and a commitment to quality, both of which communicate leadership. Projects like this, which pioneer new ways of doing things, pave the way for others to follow. It is also a team effort, with the client, contractors and professionals all contributing to making an ambitious goal a reality".

For Collins Developments, the recognition provides independent validation of an innovative and pioneering approach that brought sustainability, quality and delivery discipline into the same project framework, while meeting the operational standards required of an international hospitality brand. While the 4-Star Green Star New Build and Major Refurbishment V2 certification applies at Design stage, as the project progresses through the ‘As Built’ certification process, the installed systems, completed strategies and construction evidence will be assessed against the commitments made during the design stages.

Photo credit: Grant Pitcher