CLOUDINE MATOLA
The Green Building Council and the United Nations (UN) Habitat have struck a US$6m deal that would help energy and resource efficiency in the built environment in Zimbabwe, Business Times can report.
This new partnership will last for four years, during which time they will collaborate with various organisations in the building sector including government ministries and agencies, City of Harare, local government and communities among others.
According to UN Habitat this partnership is under the Harare Sustainable Cities Initiatives being implemented by UN Habitat in Zimbabwe and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency in Zimbabwe.
The Harare Sustainable Cities Initiatives wants to provide better living conditions to Harare citizens by increasing and improving their access to sustainable waste to wealth services, clean energy provisions and to promote energy and resource efficiency in Zimbabwe’s built environment.
The new development is going to improve the availability of clean energy to people living in urban and peri-urban areas with limited resources and also providing sustainable waste management practices.
“The objective of the initiative is to promote sustainable, low-cost and pro-poor waste management practices, increase access to clean energy by the urban and peri urban poor and achieve energy and resource efficiencies in Zimbabwe’s built environment,” UN Habitat urban energy unit chief, Dr Vincent Kitio said.
The partnership is going to develop a green building rating and certification system for Zimbabwe, create awareness on green building strategies and low carbon interventions in the sector and review national building code with recommendations for the integration of energy and resource efficiency measures and retrofitting solutions for old buildings.
Additionally, there will be training of building stakeholders on green building design and certification tools, they will also promote technology for production of low carbon building materials and explore financial mechanisms to accelerate the uptake of energy and resource efficient solutions in the built environment.
In addition, the built environment has been identified as a key contributor of greenhouse gas emissions which causes climate change.
GBCZ chairman Dr Mike Juru said the built environment had been identified as one of the key contributors of greenhouse gas emissions contributing heavily to climate change thus the need to reduce the carbon footprint through the promotion of sustainable practices.
“We are now trying to stop wasting unwanted matter you know, rather than just dumping waste we would want to create power out of it. This initiative is important to drive Green Building as you know we were established in 2015, and we are still trying to find our feet and taking our partnership with those we have been through the journey with, UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) has led seven African countries to have rating and certification tools for their countries.
“So, this helps in bringing in capacity building to the Green Building Council for us to be competent at the global level,” Juru said.
