Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries

1. Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries Prepared byChrisna du Plessis

2. Challenges

3. The trap

4. Millennium Development Goals • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. • Achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

5. Johannesburg Plan of Implementation(WSSD) • Clean water, sanitation, energy, adequate shelter, health care, food security and protection of biodiversity. • WEHAB – Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity. • Forever banish underdevelopment.

6. Making sure that the development that does happen, happens according to sustainability principles.

7. The barriers

8. Limited awareness & interest • Little understanding of the problem • No clear and relevant drivers • Other priorities • Pursuit of “progress” and modernity • Resistance – new colonialism

9. Capacity problems • Low skills levels across the board • The brain drain • Jack’s of all trade - superficial knowledge • Limited technical capacity (access to laboratories, computers, communications, etc.)

10. Technological apathy • Rigid, inappropriate and outdated regulations & perceptions • Scarcity of information & knowledge on new technologies • Force-fed foreign technology • Few local technologies available • “Appropriate” is a dirty word • Limited R & D funding for new built environment technologies

11. Access to funding • Shoestring, piecemeal budgets • Complicated procedures • Lack of experience in proposal writing • Strings attached • Matching funding • Budget eaten by foreign components (people and technologies) • Narrow, inappropriate focus (e.g. energy efficiency)

12. What developing countries bring to the party • Different perspectives • Innovation • Tradition of cooperation

13. Technology Institutional Value Benchmarking & assessment Clarification of roles & responsibilities Mapping the route and landmarks of change Knowledge sharing Education Understanding what drive current value systems Advocacy & awareness Re-evaluating heritage and tradition Cooperation & partnerships Technologies to mitigate impact Linking research to implementers Develop new ways of measuring value Develop regulatory mechanisms Codes of conduct Technologies of the future Strengthening implementation mechanisms Corporate social responsibility reporting Changing the construction process Using institutions as drivers Regional centres of excellence Enablers

14. Opportunities

15. Training & education • Train the trainers • Refresher courses for educators • Exchange programmes between higher learning institutions • Cooperation on continued professional education • Scholarships linked to work-back programmes • Open systems of sharing knowledge • Show and tell

16. Mentorship • Volunteer assistance programmes • Brainstorming • Proposal writing • Technical support • Peer review • In-house learnerships • Students • Professionals • Educators

17. Partnerships • Research • Putting together labs & methodologies with local knowledge and experience • Accessing joint funding • Construction projects • Learnerships graduating to full partnerships • SMME development • Using sustainable building to create local jobs and industries

18. Suggestions for the way forward • Set up networks for knowledge exchange and capacity building • Create a volunteer assistance programme • Establish regional demonstration and education centres • Set up a virtual “marketplace” for partnerships: research, professional, or business • Actively promote the above through the industry press, professional organisations, existing networks and government links.

19. In conclusion • Don’t give us fish • Don’t give us fishing tackle • Teach us what we need to be able to • fish better in our own waters, • using local skills and • appropriate technologies