Green building council plans built environment carbon database

Towards fostering sustainable urban transformation, the Green Building Council Nigeria (GBCN) plans to establish Nigeria Built Environment Carbon Database (NBECD}, which will allow built environment practitioners and stakeholders to respond to the imperatives of decarbonisation.

GBCN President, Mr. Danjuma Waniko, who announced this at the Council’s meeting with partners and stakeholders in Lagos, said the carbon database is being developed using locally-sourced data, which will account for local conditions and practices, as well as provide robust and contextual data for project carbon accounting.

Waniko said the mission is to advance green building practice in urban sustainability in Nigeria and get feedback from stakeholders on how to collaborate and work together. The meeting brought together key players in the sustainable building and environment sector, including government representatives, industry leaders, and environmental advocates.

“We are developing the database of the carbon footprint of the building products and materials commonly used in Nigeria so that people can have local data they can use to estimate the carbon footprint in their buildings. And we will also be looking at carbon emissions from operations such as the use of building electricity, so that people have data they can also use to estimate the carbon footprint of their buildings and upgrade them,” he concluded.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Climate Change and Circular Economy, Mrs Titilayo Oshodi, said the state government is establishing how to regenerate finance, improve the quality of life of the average citizen in Lagos, and create access to market for businesses through energy and transportation.

“We want to tackle the issue of climate change by enabling the players within the circular economy to amplify and to optimise their operations and be economically viable in that process,” he said.

According to her, the office is working with initiatives and children to collect bottled plastics at home to use schools as hubs and collection centres for aggregators to be able to use for recycling to create employment opportunities.

She further said, some of the initiatives drawn up is targeted at young children in shaping mindset, in developing and nurturing climate-friendly behaviour.

This can be through how they manage waste from the kitchen, helping them to understand the inherent wealth in the waste that is generated, going from plastic to organic waste to water and the ability to understand how to sort, how to segregate and connect with the right practitioners within the waste management sector, adding that the circle economy sector can translate to economic empowerment for families.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director, Kano State Urban Planning and Development Authority, Ibrahim Adamu said that the state has been working on reviewing its new building regulations.

He said: “We initiated a lot of projects and programmes. Some of them are the review of the building regulations, and town planning laws to ensure the emergence of new cities.”

Also, senior official of International Finance Corporation (IFC), Mrs Temilola Sonola, urged the government to provide incentives to grow the green building market, as well as address the issue of climate change and the impact of emissions in the country.

The President, Nigeria Society of Engineers, Margaret Oguntala, who was represented by Rose Madaki, said climate change is real, and its environmental impacts are self- evident on a global scale. “The impacts are mostly felt in Africa where urbanisation is rife, and population is on the increase. The building construction sector is globally responsible for about 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), a major contributor to climate change.”

She also noted that the Muhammadu Buhari administration signed into law a new climate bill that creates five-year emission budgets, with a view to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions between 2050 and 2070.

To that end, she said the Federal Government should develop a Long-Term-Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) to ensure a low-carbon future, with an initial focus on a long-term vision to 2050 for the country.”

The Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, represented by Director, Climate Change and Environmental Planning, Mr Bankole Michael, noted that adaptation or mitigation measures are needed to tackle climate change.