City's life-size green model home moves to Vangate Mall

30 March 2021

The City of Cape Town is excited to launch its My Clean Green Home exhibition at the Vangate Mall. The exhibition will run over the Easter Weekend until 6 April 2021. This is after a successful 30-day run at the Green Point Urban Park, drawing thousands of visitors curious to see how sustainable living and design can be brought into their own homes.

A net zero carbon building, like this one, is highly energy efficient, with the remaining energy needs being powered from on or off-site renewable energy sources.
 
'This life-size model home gives visitors a chance to experience what it could be like to live in such a home. Importantly, it gives us all ideas of what we could do in our own dwellings, big or small, to live a more climate and budget-friendly home life. 

'We thank Vangate Mall for hosting our exhibition and for their commitment to walking the journey of climate action with the City. We also laud the design team, Team Mahali, for this future-fit concept that the City has been able to build and make a tangible example for Cape Town's households, and across the country. The City anticipates many visitors at this new location and look forward to welcoming residents from the surrounding areas especially,' said the City's Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti.
 
The City in partnership with the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) hosted the My Clean Green Home design competition. The brief for the competition was to design a net zero carbon home for display and exhibition purposes, that the City would build. The winning design came from Team Mahali.
 
The competition and exhibition form part of the City's Future Energy Festival, which a series of virtual events to educate adults and children on how they could use energy efficiently and make sustainable choices at home through engaging activities, tips to help households save money and information about what our energy future may look like.
 
Let’s ACT. For a Stronger Cape Town
'The City has just launched its climate action response and resilience campaign Let's Act. For a stronger Cape Town. Importantly, this exhibition shows how we can make our homes more efficient and act to make sure our families, neighbourhoods and our city can become more sustainable, and stronger.
 
'As part of the City’s actions against climate change, it is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050. The City has committed that all new buildings in Cape Town will be net zero carbon by 2030. While net zero carbon homes are seemingly challenging to create, the aim of the exhibition is to showcase the technologies and building techniques that already exist and which are becoming increasingly within reach of the average household,' said Councillor Maxiti.
 
Carbon neutrality – what is it?
Carbon neutrality means introducing new technologies to completely clean up the fuels and activities that currently cause greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming, while enhancing our social, economic and environmental goals. In support of the growing global momentum to tackle climate change, Cape Town, along with other cities in South Africa and worldwide, has committed to achieving carbon neutrality and climate resilience by 2050 to reduce global warming. One of the main contributors to global warming is greenhouse gas emissions from manmade sources, including buildings and transport, so reducing emissions by changing the way we live, work and exist together is vital for all of us.
 
Virtual walk through tool – a first for a South African city
The My Clean Green Home digital walk through provides residents with the opportunity to learn about sustainable living and better understand their electricity consumption especially. This virtual tool is a first for a South African city and provides a wealth of information, which users can use in their own homes.
 
Residents can experience this innovative house using this link: https://www.capetownfutureenergyfestival.co.za/mycleangreenhome

For more information, see these resources:
Let’s ACT: http://bit.ly/CCT-ClimateChange
Future Energy Festival: www.capetownfutureenergyfestival.co.za
Save Electricity: www.savingelectricity.org.za 
Smart Living Handbook: https://bit.ly/Smartliving2020
 
 
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office