Govt expedites development of green building standards

TAFADZWA MURANGANWA

Government is  expediting  the development of  green building standards as a way to counteract the devastating effects of climate change, Business Times can report.

It emerged  at a green building standard development workshop held in the capital  Harare on Wednesday, which was organised by UN Climate Technology Centre Network (CTCN).

Speaking to delegates at the workshop, engineer Clive Marimo, a director  at the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amnesties said: ” We need as many inputs  as we can get from professionals  in all sectors for us to come up with standards that can be adoptable and enforced.”

The chairman of the Green Buildings Council for Zimbabwe (GBCZ) emphasized the significance of working together with the public sector, the business community, and all groups that share the same values in order to create environmentally friendly structures.

“We want to bring industry and government together with the  desire for greening the nation.

GBCZ board member, Kudzai  Chitiva, weighed in saying: ” We want to collaborate with other established organisations in conducting research and development in all aspects of sustainable buildings and operations within the built environment.”

He  added: “We believe a green building should be able to  adopt rainwater harvesting for water efficiency. It also needs to use natural lighting enabling energy efficiency,” he added.

Green building expert and consultant, Karsten Holm, who is also  CTCN Technical Assistance Project, team leader ,  said there  was need for a comprehensive analysis of the current infrastructure to inform policy guidelines for the adoption of green buildings.

“There need to be a  comprehensive  assessment of building groups and regulations in Zimbabwe and diagnosis of technological needs. Policy guidelines will be based on the above,” said Holm.