Adrie Fourie
HOD Sustainable Cities & Research, Solid Green
Adrie has an undergraduate degree in Town and Regional Planning from the University of Pretoria, a Master’s in Architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand & a Postgraduate Diploma in Green Cities for Eco-Efficiency from the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She is a trained Climate Reality Leader, a Living Future Ambassador, an EcoDistrict™ AP, a Fitwel Ambassador and a Green Star AP+. With more than 20 years of experience in development economics, urban management and sustainable precinct design, Adrie aims to drive delivery that supports clients and delivery partners on projects beyond the building scale, focused on addressing sustainability and resource efficiency in a precinct, district’ & city scale.
More recently the work that Adrie and her unit are focused on links to ESG strategy development and refinement of overarching Environmental Reporting approaches, biodiversity policies and plans to guide implementation and conservation reporting, the setting of Science-Based Targets for corporate clients to link to the larger city scale work we are doing around unpacking what a commitment to the Paris Agreement to restrict global heating at 1.5 degrees Celsius or below; the Social Development Goals and Net Zero really needs to look like.
Grahame Cruickshanks
Head of Sustainability and Utilities, Growthpoint Properties
Grahame has worked as a professional architect, sustainability consultant and management consultant with 20 years of experience in the design, construction and property industry. Focusing much of his career on green buildings and an expert in his field, he has worked on a variety of Green Star and BREEAM certified projects and other building projects in South Africa, Singapore and the UK.
Prior to joining Growthpoint Properties as the Head of Sustainability and Utilities, Grahame’s previous roles included Managing Executive for Market Engagement at the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) and Manager at EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services.
At Growthpoint, he is responsible for utility management, resource efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable development and strategic projects across the company’s portfolio of retail, office and industrial properties.
Josiah Diale Lodi
Chief Director: Integrated Development and Spatial Planning, Gauteng Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Josiah has over 20 years of experience in the urban and development planning profession. As a qualified Urban and Regional Planner, Diale worked in the areas of Spatial and Collaborative Planning, Land Use Planning, Geographic Information Systems, Urban Policy Development and implementation, Integrated development planning and intergovernmental planning.
Diale started his career in the private sector, then spent some time working in the development cooperation sector, after which he joined academia for four years. Since then, Diale spend most of his career in government, particularly in provincial and national government.
In provincial government, Diale worked in Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal briefly and the Western Cape where he held senior management positions in the areas of integrated development planning and intergovernmental planning, and spatial planning. Nationally Diale worked in the Department of Cooperative Governance where he led the implementation of the Integrated Urban Development Framework and subsequently formed part of the team leading the development and implementation of the District Development Model.
Jutta Berns
Director and Founder, ecocentric
With many accolades, green building certifications, projects, and years of on-the-ground experience under her belt, Jutta is a highly experienced strategist who understands the complexities and challenges that companies face when embedding sustainability into the core of their business processes.
She founded Ecocentric in 2007, a multi-disciplinary green building consulting firm, specialising in delivering sustainable solutions and strategies within the built environment, which yield the lowest environmental impacts throughout the building life-cycle while delivering on net zero ambitions.
Jutta has an academic and professional background in political science, environmental economics and eco-systems valuations from the Universities of Bonn (Germany) and Cambridge (United Kingdom) and holds professional accreditations as a LEED AP, a Green Star AP+, and as an EcoDistricts AP. She is a GBCSA faculty member, Green Star Assessor and a member of the GBCSA’s Technical Advisory Group, and also part of the GBCSA’s Project Steering Committee tasked with developing the new version of the Green Star New Buildings tool, where she heads up the Resilience Category. She has also been invited again to help curate the annual Green Building Convention, taking place in Cape Town in November 2022.
In addition she is the Chair of the Gauteng Chapter of the Women’s Property Network (WPN), and heads up the Sustainability and ESG portfolio for the WPN. She sits on the editorial advisory boards for publications Earthworks Magazine, and the GBCSA’s Positive Impact Magazine.
Marc Sherratt
Managing Director, Marc Sherratt, Sustainability Architects (MSSA)
Recently chosen by the Mail & Guardian as one of South Africa’s pioneers in the green economy, Marc has designed some of the most progressive green buildings in the country. An Architect and Net Zero Accredited Professional Marc founded Marc Sherratt, Sustainability Architects (MSSA) in 2017. His team went onto design the first triple Net Zero project accredited by the Green Building Council of South Africa.
With 9 years of experience in the construction industry, he is considered one of the leaders of the green building movement on the continent. In 2019 the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Studies (GIBS) selected him as one of their top emerging entrepreneurs in the country.
As an expert in the field, Marc has lectured on Sustainable Design at the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Architecture and he currently works with National Provincial and Municipal Government in helping them implement their Climate Action Plans.
Mike Aldous
Technical Principal, MPAMOT
Mike has over 26 years of experience in the Built Environment and brings with him a broad industry skill set, with an MSc in Built Environment Sciences, a BCom in property, a professionally registered civil engineering qualification and an international post-graduate project management qualification. He has been actively involved at both the community and commercial level in promoting, educating, and focusing attention on green buildings, sustainability, climate resilience, energy efficiency over the built environment lifecycle and the growing role supporting technology has to play in delivering better outcomes.
Mike has worked on over 60 healthcare facilities ranging from renovations to large-scale brownfield and greenfield developments, including upgrading and repurposing of medical facilities to accommodate modern equipment and nuclear medicine tools.
As a former member in the Healthy Buildings and Healthcare practices within the Mott MacDonald global group Mike has combined these varied roles to support his keen interest in evolving medical technologies, indoor environmental quality, and the health impact thereof, and the growing influence of biomimicry derived solutions to advancing engineering solutions, with a keen interest in regenerative design opportunities.
Having worked closely with the Green Building Council of South Africa since its inception, Mike has contributed to the development of a number of the Green Star rating tools he serves as an assessor, assessor committee member, GBCSA faculty member and sits on the GBCSA Technical Advisory Group.
Ohad Shachar
Sustainability Director, GCX
Ohad joined GCX in 2008 and has over 15 years of sustainability management consultancy experience, specialising in the development and delivery of climate change response programmes. This has included carbon footprint analysis, life cycle assessments, GHG verification services, CDP reporting and GHG mitigation and adaptation strategies – all of which he has implemented with a portfolio of JSE-listed companies across various sectors such as Property, Insurance, Finance, Mining and Fisheries.
Ohad has co-authored various climate adaptation studies in the agricultural and insurance sectors and has assisted companies and cities in developing innovative climate risk and vulnerability assessment tools. He has a BSC Hons in Biochemistry and an MPhil in Environmental Management.