Nedbank Group Limited has become one of the first businesses in South Africa to offset its carbon emissions by taking up Growthpoint Properties Limited’s (JSE: GRT) renewable energy certificates (RECs) in a groundbreaking initiative enabling tenants to offset electricity emissions in leased buildings.
Nedbank leads on Scope 2 carbon emissions reduction
Setting a new benchmark for corporate decarbonisation in South Africa, Nedbank will offset its Scope 2 emissions across 26 branches located in Growthpoint-owned shopping malls and offices in five provinces – from La Lucia Mall in KwaZulu-Natal to Waterfall Mall in North West, and Woodmead Retail Park in Gauteng to Walmer Park in the Eastern Cape, as well as The Constantia Village in the Western Cape. Together, the branches span over 8,200 square metres of retail space.
Growthpoint solves the challenge of leased-property emissions for businesses
Scope 2 emissions, which stem from purchased electricity, are typically the hardest – if not impossible – for businesses to reduce in multi-tenanted leased premises without support from the landlord. Tenants can reduce their consumption but can’t control the electricity supply at these buildings, and the vast majority of South Africa’s national electricity is coal-fired.
Growthpoint’s REC initiative addresses these gaps for the first time in South Africa by certifying the clean solar power generated at its properties and offering verified RECs to tenants. At the same time, it paves the way for wider use of certified, blockchain-tracked green attributes by businesses in South Africa.
A scalable model for corporate decarbonisation
Nedbank has welcomed the solution as a major step forward on its well-established sustainability journey.
Charl de Kock, executive head of group business services at Nedbank
Charl de Kock, Nedbank executive head of group business services, says that Nedbank is delighted to partner with Growthpoint in this pioneering initiative: “Access to RECs through Growthpoint gives us an immediate, auditable way to reduce Scope 2 emissions for our branches in their buildings. This removes a big barrier and supports our long-term climate goals, especially where it is too complex to wheel or generate renewable electrons,” he adds.
“Nedbank achieved a 30% energy reduction target two years ahead of schedule. In 2024, our electricity use stayed below 97,000 MWh, and renewable energy reached 10% of total consumption. We have been carbon-neutral since 2010, making us the only major bank with this track record.”
Werner van Antwerpen, head of corporate advisory at Growthpoint
“Nedbank’s early adoption of RECs marks a pivotal shift for carbon offsetting and reporting in South Africa. Transparent carbon emission offsets are urgently needed, particularly for businesses in leased spaces, as they cannot tackle the challenge alone. Growthpoint is proud to support our tenants in decarbonising their operations,” says Werner van Antwerpen, Growthpoint head of corporate advisory.
Growthpoint’s collaboration with Nedbank unlocks a new way to manage environmental risk while affirming leadership in driving global efforts toward a low-carbon economy.
Shared climate ambitions drive joint action
Nedbank and Growthpoint are naturally aligned on certified decarbonisation. Both are leaders in South Africa’s certified green building movement and catalysts for energy efficiency and renewable energy adoption. Both share ambitious climate targets: Growthpoint is aiming for carbon neutrality across its property portfolio (the largest for a REIT locally) by 2050, while Nedbank is targeting 100% of lending and investing supporting a net-zero carbon economy by the same year.
By taking these initial steps in the REC market together, Nedbank and Growthpoint are advancing their sustainability ambitions and opening the way for businesses of all sizes in South Africa to achieve credible Scope 2 emission offsets while stimulating the local green economy.
This transaction is expected to pave the way for broader integration of green attribute instruments and grow South Africa’s sustainable economy.
Growthpoint’s solar energy infrastructure
Underpinning the solution is Growthpoint’s unique renewable energy mix. The leading property company has grown one of South Africa’s largest small scale embedded generator (SSEG) renewable energy fleets and linked it to transparent certification frameworks. It has a solar fleet of 80 rooftop systems providing 61.2MWp capacity. Growthpoint plans to commission 7MWp of additional solar capacity by mid-2026.
So far, nearly half of its solar plants are already registered on the international Renewable Energy Certificate (I-REC) registry in partnership with Fuel Switch, Africa’s first blockchain-enabled REC exchange. The I-REC mechanism provides globally recognised certification for renewable energy generation and is increasingly being adopted by companies and institutions to meet sustainability targets.
E-co₂ wheeled green electricity is live
Alongside its on-site rooftop solar fleet, Growthpoint launched its wheeled renewable energy initiative, e-co₂, last month (October 2025). Supported by a landmark 195GWh power purchase agreement (PPA) with Etana Energy for a sustainable mix of renewable hydro, wind and solar electricity.
The first renewable energy generation project to come online as part of the PPA is Boston Hydroelectric Plant in Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme near Clarens, a new R390m development by Serengeti Energy, with an operational lifetime of over 40 years. Growthpoint has acquired a 30% stake in the plant and secured exclusive access to all the approximately 30GWh of renewable electricity generated by the plant annually.
The certified zero-carbon electricity from Boston Hydro is already being added to the national grid and supplying 20 Growthpoint buildings on Eskom’s direct grid and three on the City of Cape Town’s grid. This includes 10 e-co₂ office buildings in Sandton where, in addition to compounding cost-saving fixed escalations on green electricity, each unit of clean energy consumed by a tenant automatically generates a tradable digital REC for them, tracked via Fuel Switch’s blockchain-enabled platform.
A milestone for South Africa’s green economy
“Growthpoint’s first-of-its-kind green electricity programme offers tenants a way to reduce their Scope 2 emissions and marks an important milestone in South Africa’s green energy market. It demonstrates how building owners and tenant businesses can work together to deliver real emissions reductions and build a low-carbon future,” adds van Antwerpen.
