“Part of a series of regional conferences co-sponsored by CIB (the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction), UNEP (United nations Environment programme) and iiSBE (the international Initiative for a Sustainable built Environment) encouraging the equal participation of developing countries in international discussion towards creating a more sustainable built environment (SBE). Local hosts of the conference were CSIR Building and Construction Technology (Boutek), the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Construction Industry Development Board and the South African Institute of Architects. One hundred and fifty delegates from 24 countries (including Togo, Cameroon, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Mauritius, Ethiopia, the Congo and Nigeria) gathered for a week to share experience and knowledge, and discuss ways of enabling and mainstreaming sustainable building and construction in Africa.
The conference was preceded by an introductory course to sustainable building presented by CSIR Boutek. Outcomes during the first two days of the conference, delegates had the opportunity to listen to a broad range of papers on topics including building assessment tools, future technologies and sustainable settlement approaches. Ten people were selected on the basis of their presentations – seven for their conference papers and three on the basis of their entries for the Sustainable Building Best Practices Award for support to attend the SB05 Tokyo World conference. Aiming to be a working conference stimulating dialogue, opportunities were provided for more informal discussions. Sustainable building – Action for Africa; the last two days were given over to a dialogue session to discuss actions needed to provide built environment players with what they need to ensure decisions support sustainable development. The session aimed to identify and prioritise specific actions required from different stakeholders (educational institutions, industry, the professional associations, research organisations, etc.); explore how these actions can be achieved through cooperation and sharing of resources across Africa and with other developing countries. Tanmay Tathagat, Senior Programme Manager, Energy Efficiency at the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC) was CAA’s sponsored speaker. He is currently leading the Energy Conservation Building Code development in India and the effort to develop an international green buildings implementation program, especially targeted towards developing countries. His presentation was entitled ‘Mainstreaming Sustainable Buildings’
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