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Minister for Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea has urged developers and building professionals to ensure sustainable construction practices as that will help minimise the negative environmental impact of buildings through efficient means in the use of materials, energy, development, space and eco-systems.

As professionals, he stressed that they have the responsibility of ensuring a safe environment by using energy-efficient materials in construction projects.

He said the practice of creating structures and using processes that are responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building lifecycle from sitting to design, construction, maintenance and renovation provide ways of dealing with our environment.

In a speech read on his behalf at a summit dubbed ‘Ghana Green Building summit’, Atta Akyea announced that in an attempt to provide a boost to the housing industry, government will put in place some regulatory frameworks and adopt a number of policies whose overall objective will be to create an enabling environment for the private sector to play a leading role in the delivery of housing.

Government, he added, is undertaking a number of policy reforms to ensure sustainable development of the construction industry, streamlining the manufacture and distribution of building materials to make them more affordable and efficient.

The ‘Green Building Summit’ was organised by Emerald Properties Limited as part of its corporate social responsibility with the aim to augment efforts aimed at reducing the negative impact of real estate project on the environment while conserving natural resources.

It was also to sensitise stakeholders on the importance of green technology and how to implement it during the project’s lifecycle, as well as advocate for national policy such as tax incentive for developers who adopt green building methods.

Chief Executive Officer of Emerald Properties, Harry Quartey was of the hope that the summit will kick-start a conversation about how sustainable buildings can be built in Ghana.

He explained that the summit was to share ideas about how to make green building cost effective and what can be done to collaborate as stakeholders to help government move the idea forward for the improvement on buildings.

He lamented that the policies on environmental-friendly houses are in existence but the problem has been its implementation, and called on government to support developers to redevelop some building units to make them greener.

Quartey says challenges for the lack of green building are that there is the perception that they are expensive, and also the poor communication of advantages of green building to developers and end users.

Green building, he noted, may be expensive for initial capital outflow, but in the long run a lot of money will be saved on the part of the builder, and urged developers to opt for that.

A green building is a building that in its design construction or operation reduces or eliminates negative impacts, and can create positive impacts on our climate and environment. Green buildings preserve precious natural resources and improve quality of life.