Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s new $11.6 million business school is the first public and education building in South Africa to receive official green design rating accreditation from the country’s Green Building Council, according to a report in EProp.

The new 60,000-square-foot building, which will open in March, uses environmentally friendly materials such as smart glass and timber approved by the Forestry Stewardship Council, an international body promoting sustainable management of forests. Smart glass reduces unnecessary heat, keeping lecture rooms and offices naturally cooler.

Among the initiatives that helped achieve the accreditation: rainwater is harvested for use in the toilets; air and light are automated; and paints are used that have low volatile organic compounds. The new building has six rainwater tanks each with a capacity of 176,000 cubic feet.

The four-star green design rating for the three-story building at the university’s Second Avenue campus is also the first for any building in Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape.

The rating followed months of rigorous planning and implementation in the areas of energy efficiency, materials, water usage, indoor air quality, transport, ecology and lighting to ensure that the stringent standards were achieved, EProp reported.

Going green can add up to 20 percent on initial building costs, but Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University expects to reap savings of at least $4,500 a year from efficient lighting, the use of occupancy sensors and solar energy; and another $6,877 in water savings.

The university submitted its green building plans before the South African rating model was formally introduced by the Green Building Council of South Africa. It is part of the pilot phase of a new tool to measure a building’s impact on the environment, EProp reported.