The stakeholders have expressed concerns about the fragmentation of Green Building Initiative in Nigeria and emphasized the need for harmonization and cooperation to achieve sustainability goals.
They called for more awareness, the development of a uniform Nigerian standard, clear definitions and metrics to measure the performance of green structure, access to funds and a stronger participation of science in the development, research and capacity structure of the curricula.
The call was made in a one-day regional workshop in South West at the NDC Scorecard for sustainable building projects in Lagos, which was organized by the Green Building Council of Nigeria (GBCN) in cooperation with the Lagos Office of Enterprise Geographic Information System (EGIS) and urban development.
The President of GBCN, Danjuma Waniko, who set the tone for discussions, said the forum aims to raise awareness of stakeholders at the state level, to examine opportunities for local adoption and political reforms and to integrate the integration of sustainable building measures into regional climate strategies.
Waniko, a volume vermet, found that the built environment is responsible for a significant proportion of global emissions of up to 39 percent, but better designs and construction practices can help to reduce the effects and at the same time to cities with the emerging climate challenges.
An extraordinary professor at the Department of Building at the University of Lagos, Olatunji Oladiran, found that science is not well integrated into Green Building. He emphasized that some of these concepts by Nigerian University Commission (NUC) should be included in the curricula of the universities, and called for more cooperation in research and the use of local building materials to provide practical industry solutions.
The President of the Association of Consulting Architects in Nigeria (Acan), Ekaete Fujah, a guided tour of Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), complained of the difficulties of receiving certification for green buildings in Nigeria.
She asked the establishment of a clear path to certification and praised the government of the state of Lagos for its inclusion for construction and demolition waste. “There must be a way to use all of this to achieve the goals of sustainability, carbon zero and energy efficiency,” she said.
The chairman of the Lagos branch of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Mr. Tosin Kadiri, said that the institution had started to organize programs to clarify the importance of green buildings, the effects of climate change and the cost effects on real estate management.
“We believe that the green building from the design phase must be taken into account because they cannot integrate these concepts if the building is already available,” he said.
Head of innovation and new product development at Lafarge Africa PLC, Emmanuel Illaboya, found that awareness of the green building is growing, but is distorted by the fragmentation of the industry.
“If you look at some of the certification bodies, the LEED measures differ from the Excellency of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in design for larger efficiency increases (Redge).
Illaboya explained that Lafarge has introduced low-carbon materials and developed solutions for the reuse of construction and demolition materials. “Actually it is not a waste; we take it back and use it to create new products, so there is no waste.”
He called for stronger cooperation in the entire sector and hovered the idea of building a Green building with the government of the state of Lagos. “We have to standardize whether we carry out buildings, materials or design. Standard your work so that there is harmony,” he added.