EDGE - Residential

EDGE certification involves two key stages. It is recommended that a project go through both preliminary and post construction stages in order to successfully achieve EDGE certification. 

Each stage consists of a 2 round submission process to the GBCSA

1. Preliminary:  At the design stage, enter the project details into the EDGE software and select green options.  The platform will quickly establish the feasibility of the green measures you plan to use on the project. 

Note: In order to comply, the project must reach the EDGE Standard of a minimum of 20% improvement in energy, water, and embodied energy in materials as measured against current standard building regulations.

A preliminary certificate is issued by the GBCSA at this stage.

2. Post Construction: Following construction an EDGE auditor is dispatched to site to verify the projects green credentials. The EDGE auditor will then collate the findings and submit the relevant documentation to the GBCSA. 

The GBCSA will then verify the documentation and issue a final EDGE certification certificate per unit to the project owner.

Taking green measures, EDGE proves that the next generation of buildings can be more affordable to build. Preliminary indications from South African pilot projects targeting EDGE certification point to an additional construction cost of not more than 3% to meet the EDGE Standard, but this will vary for each project depending on the specific design of the project. 

1. The GBCSA EDGE certification fees are based on a sliding scale that relates firstly to the number of residential units in a development, and secondly to the number of submission phases of post construction submissions. GBCSA Members receive a discount of approximately 25% on the fees compared to non-GBCSA members

2: These fees will be applicable from 1 January 2019, and apply to all projects that complete registration after this date (i.e. sign a certification agreement and pay certification fees)

3: The full certification fees comprise two parts, namely the ‘1. Base fee & prelim certification fee’ and ‘2. Post construction fee per submission’

4: Projects that plan to submit only one post construction submission to GBCSA only pay the post construction fee once, but projects that submit their post construction submissions in phases will pay the ‘2. Post construction fee per submission’ every time the project submits a phased post construction EDGE submission. For all projects the ‘1. Base fee & prelim certification fee’ applies.

5: These fees are available to projects with residential unit types of 4 or less. For projects with more than 4 unit types the GBCSA will determine the final fee based on the number of unit types and the extent of material differences of the various unit types, which will be at the discretion of the GBCSA.

6: In terms of payment process, there are two options:

Option 1: ‘1. base fee & prelim certification fee’ and ‘2. Post construction fee’ can be paid at once at registration or

Option 2: Paid in stages:  on registration, pay the ‘1. Base fee & prelim certification’ and then prior to the post construction submission pay the ‘2. Post construction submission fee’ 

Note: In both cases option 1 or option 2; GBCSA will not be able to process a project submission for review until a project has paid the respective registration fee for that stage (prelim or post construction). Two Proforma Invoices will always be issued from the GBCSA accounts department to projects on registration for ‘1. Base fee & prelim certification fee’ and ‘2. Post construction fee per submission’ regardless of whether the project will pay in stages. GBCSA will keep a record of which stages have been paid for and which not on a project, and only process those that have paid.

7. GBCSA Fees are reviewed and increased annually, which will include an inflation related increase and any other increases where GBCSA costs have changed.

8. Projects that register in one year, but only submit in future years may be subject to fee increases and will be required to pay current fees where the submission occurs more than 2 years after the original registration.

9. These GBCSA certification fees do not include EDGE Auditor fees (and do not include EDGE Expert fees where these apply) – these are priced, appointed and paid by the client directly to these individuals.

10. The formula to calculate the full GBCSA certification fee per project is thus, for a particular number of housing units, and where the number of unit types is equal to or less than 4:

Total GBCSA Certification Fee = (1) + [n x (2)]

where

n is the number of post construction EDGE submissions to be made to the GBCSA for the overall project via the EDGE App, and

(1) is the ‘1. Base Fee & prelim certification fee’ for that number of housing units in the overall project, and

(2) is the ‘2. Post construction fee per submission’ for that number of housing units in the overall project,