2nd Ghana Green Building Summit 2019 held in Accra

Yecham Property Consult in conjunction with the IFC –EDGE Program hosted the second edition of the Ghana Green Building Summit on 13th June, 2019 at the Kempinski Hotel, Accra, Ghana.

The Summit gathered 155 stakeholders to discuss challenges and opportunities within the green building space.

This year’s Summit, organised with the aim of evaluating Ghana’s green building needs in order to fashion local solutions in design, finance and policy, was opened by founder and Executive Director of Yecham Property Consult, Cyril Nii Ayitey Tetteh.

He reminded delegates of the benefits of building to achieve energy and resource efficiency while having minimum impact on the environment. He noted that worldwide buildings alone on the average account for 40% of global energy usage. He thus implored delegates to view green building as a “must have” rather than a “nice to have”.

The keynote address was delivered by the Minister of Works and Housing, Hon. Samuel Atta Akyea who charged some of the relevant professional bodies to ensure extensive training and adoption of green building principles and technology by their members.

He also intimated that government was willing to support green building projects with land and resources. He was among eight other speakers and eight panellists who made presentations and discussed alternative material use, rating and certification, green finance and creation of sustainable smart cities.

Major Summit Partner, International Finance Corporation (IFC), also made an extensive presentation of their EDGE Program. Program lead in Ghana, Dennis Papa Odenyi Quansah introduced EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) to delegates in an extensive presentation which was supported by SGS, a verification and certification partner.

EDGE, an innovative assessment tool, assesses viability of a green building project at the early design stage. EDGE offers options that lead to an ideal set of technical solutions that reduce energy and water consumption by calculating upfront costs and potential operational savings.

At the end of the Summit, stakeholders reiterated the need to obtain commitment from green finance organizations to provide access to qualified Ghanaian suppliers and developers who adopt green built methods as well as cooperation agreement from governmental, non-governmental agencies to provide incentives to promote green buildings and sustainable and resilient cities.