Aggregates Case Study

Innovative aggregates by Lafarge helped hospital gain 5-Star rating

When the Emergency Centre at the Karl Bremer Hospital in Bellville was completed, it broadened the scope of health services for the communities in the northern and Tygerberg districts. Also keen to demonstrate leadership in sustainable development, the Health authorities in the Western Cape had set the ambitious requirement for the project to achieve 5-Star Green Star SA Office v1 Design and As Built ratings by the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA).

The 5-Star Green Star SA rated Karl Bremer Hospital Emergency Centre.

The award of the main concrete supply contract to Lafarge Readymix Concrete on the

R61 million project proved to be a significant contributor to the successful achievement of this Green Star rating ambition. With an impressive track record in the development of lower carbon-footprint concrete products, Lafarge South Africa is a member of the international LafargeHolcim group, a world leader in building materials.

The unique ‘green’ feature of the Lafarge Readymix offer was the incorporation of quality Class 1 recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) in its concrete mixes – the only supplier at that time able to make such an offer and demonstrate the value of the GBCSA green credit that would be achieved. Developed in the Western Cape by the company’s Aggregates and Readymix business units, recycled aggregate is another pioneering sustainable development introduction by Lafarge in support of the strong trend to green building in the local construction industry.

While the bulk of recycled aggregate is used as road base material, quality RCA offers a range of environmental and cost saving benefits. In today’s world, this is increasingly important as construction materials are selected after being scrutinised for their ecological impact. RCA minimises the disposal of demolition concrete waste to landfill; reduces the cost of raw materials; saves energy through less processing and transportation, and conserves natural resources.

In  keeping with Lafarge’s holistic approach to infrastructure development projects, the company not only supplied the required 4612 cubic metres of ready-mixed concrete, incorporating 700 tons of the Class 1 RCA, but it also provided GBCSA certification documents, a concrete pump and concrete testing services.

“In order to introduce another new concrete development, we had to convince GBCSA and the project’s consulting engineers of our ability to maintain compliance with both the structural concrete requirements and the green specifications,” says Lafarge’s Herbert Groenewald, Head of Building Marketing.

Lafarge’s teams in the Western Cape rose to the challenge and gave exemplary service. The outcome was an excellent RCA product that was the equal of, or better than, similar developments by the global parent group in other countries.

“The successful achievement of the targeted 5-Star Green Star rating reflects the good collaboration between all suppliers and stakeholders involved in the Karl Bremer Hospital Emergency Centre project,” comments Groenewald. “We are proud of the contribution we were able to make. It was an example of how at Lafarge South Africa we apply our unmatched technical resources to developing innovative solutions for our customers.”