Thrust on conducive policy & incentives to encourage green building construction

Experts have put thrust on ensuring a comprehensive "greening" of Bangladesh's building sector to work together to support the integration and mainstreaming of green building concept.

 They were speaking in a dialogue on "Environmental Sustainability and Certification", arranged by DCCI on August 25.

About 50 participants from different organizations participated in this dialogue. Sustainable Infrastructure Development Consultant & CEO of EnergySolve International (Pvt) Ltd. Mahendra Jayalath presented the keynote paper.

DCCI President Osama Taseer chaired the Dialogue. 

The DCCI president said DCCI is relentlessly working with the policy makers and development partners to promote environmental sustainability through remarkable initiatives like 'Eco-friendly Jute Pulp Paper Project' and 'Resource Efficient Cleaner Production Project' in metal industry. Sustainability is one of the most discussed environmental and climate change related issues, he said. The growing climate change vulnerability especially rising temperature is adversely affecting the sustainability of our construction and building sector, he mentioned. A study shows that about 40 percent of electricity of the total production in Bangladesh and 30 percent worldwide are consumed by the residential sector. there are 90 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified green factories in Bangladesh. Among those 24 are LEED platinum rated and more than 280 factories are registered with USGBC for LEED certification.

Mahendra Jayalath in his presentation highlighted that sustainable development is the driving force behind modern day development. Contamination of water, soil and air, pollution by chemical, deforestation and waste management are some of the concerns related with sustainable environment. According to a study, building's contribution to total environmental burden ranges between 12-42 percent and most of it is atmospheric & pollution emissions which is 40 percent. He said we need to focus on green building for sustainable environment as it would help us combating against climate change issues. For safe water resource, high benefit at low cost, lower business operating cost, increased building valuation, improved production capacity, energy efficiency and gaining confidence of international buyers, sustainable environment-friendly certified green building are very important.  

Participants of this dialogue stressed on and recommended creating awareness for using green technology in building construction, loan facility at lower interest rate for green building, reducing duty on green building materials, rain water harvesting, renewable energy, reducing misuse of power and energy and modern waste management system.

Senior Vice President of DCCI Waqar Ahmad Choudhury gave the concluding remarks.

DCCI Vice President Imran Ahmed, Directors Ashraf Ahmed, Alhaj Deen Mohammad, Enamul Haque Patwary, Hossain A Sikder, Kh. Rashedul Ahsan, KMN Monjurul Hoque, Engr. Md. Al Amin, Md. Rashedul Karim Munna, Mohammad Bashiruddin, Shams Mahmud and SM Zillur Rahman were also present.

-rmc//