Call for green building rating standard

PHILLIMON MHLANGA

Zimbabwe should develop a green building rating standard that is appropriate to the southern African country, Kenya based climate specialist, Vincent Kitio has said.

Kitio, who leads the urban energy team at UN Habitant in Kenya, spoke at a Green Building Council of Zimbabwe’s conference held in the capital Harare on Tuesday this week.

“The country (Zimbabwe) should develop a green building rating standard that is appropriate to Zimbabwe’s contest. The UN-Habitat stands ready to assist the Green Building Council of Zimbabwe in this endeavour,” Kito said.

He added: “The Green Building Council of Zimbabwe needs to have an integrated approach whereby all stakeholders are involved from architects, building practitioners, decision makers, home owners, end users, among others.

“In addition, the Council needs to produce and adapt tools and information material to assist architects in their new building design. The Council has to also advocate for energy efficient buildings code and regulations.

“The Council should also suggest to the necessary authorities the removal of financial barriers through the creation of an affordable line of credits that can accelerate the uptake of green building in Zimbabwe.”

The call for a green standard comes at a time when energy used in existing buildings is estimated to be more than 56% of total national electricity consumption in Africa, Zimbabwe included.

It is understood that buildings contribute between 30% and 40% of greenhouse gas emissions.

“These buildings are not designed by integrating local climate data or excessive energy consumption. Building materials are most often imported and require a lot of energy for their production,” Kito said.

Green Building Council vice Chairman, Kudzi Chitiva admitted it was important to have a rating system for all new buildings.

“It’s important that we adopt a green building rating standard. Currently, we have a rating standard for existing buildings. Unfortunately, we don’t have one for the new building. It is therefore critical that we work on having one soon. Lack of mandatory building standards is giving us a serious headache given the vagaries of climate change,” Chitiva said.

He added: “There is a roadmap for this. The process is consultative, and we hope by early next year, we should have something concrete towards the adoption of the green building rating standard. We need that certification or rating for us to have a sustainable building sector.”