Ing William Evans Halm
ING WILLIAM Evans Halm, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Spektra Global, has called on built environment professionals in Ghana, to design sustainable buildings over the next 50 years to help accommodate the growing energy needs of Ghanaians.
Delivering a presentation on “Sustainable buildings – a shift towards Zero Energy Buildings”at the just-ended International Building Construction and Property Exhibition at the Accra International Conference Center on Friday, he defined sustainable building design as strategies that focussed on maximizing the use of resources such as energy, water and other materials while reducing the building’s impact on humans and the environment over the life cycle of the building.
According to Ing Halm, over the next 20 years, sustainable buildings would become a necessity for any city to survive because sustainable buildings led to lower utility tariffs, used less water (20-25 per cent compared to conventional buildings), saved about 30 per cent energy, had low maintenance cost and exhibited better indoor quality of space leading to healthier, happier and better productivity as well as performance.
To encourage such a drive on the African continent, he called on governments, development partners and non-governmental organisations, to play active roles that would help attain such an objective.
“For sustainable buildings to take firm root in Africa, a deliberate attempt should be made to encourage it by means of motivations such as incentives (waivers on building permit application fees), reduction on taxes for companies to build sustainable structures, complete development of infrastructure to support selling back excess energy produced by buildings, which would eventually lead to sustainable cities.
Net zero buildings
He also said it was about time the Ghanaian built environment witnessed net zero buildings that would emit less carbons.
Making reference to a research piece by Lewis A. Asante and Alex Sosu in 2018, titled ‘The Challenge of Reducing the Incidences of Building Collapse: Analysing the Perspectives Of Building Inspectors In Kumasi’, Ing Halm highlighted: “In the current climate, the built environment will continue to pose a threat to human life and property investment. Although unpleasant to contemplate, the study concludes that Ghana may witness more building collapses in the near future if the aforesaid challenges are not addressed.”
Way forward
The CEO of Spektra Global among other things recommended collaboration between built environment professional associations, building regulation authorities, and development control institutions to define processes and guidelines for ensuring improved construction practices, site quality control and safety.
Additionally, he called for private sector investment in standard construction laboratories to support construction quality control especially in all major urban centres in Ghana.
A business desk report