Carbon trade using profit motive for public good
April 4, 2008By Michael Casey
Bangkok, Thailand - Back in the late 1990s, Henry Derwent had the
unenviable job of selling a British government proposal that markets be
used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The idea was to create a system in which energy-intensive companies
would buy and sell pollution permits, giving them a financial incentive
to cut their carbon dioxide emissions.
It was a tough sell. Environmentalists condemned it as morally
reprehensible and business leaders said it was bad economics. Even an
investment bank refused to take part because it would sully their
reputation.
But these days, Derwent is feeling vindicated.
The British set up a carbon trading market in 2002, followed by the
European Union in 2005. New Zealand's system is expected later this
year. The United States plans a regional greenhouse gas initiative in
the nine Northeast states by 2009, and Australia wants a national
system by 2010. All global warming bills in the US Congress include an
emissions trading mechanism.
While many people still oppose emissions trading over concerns that it
would allow companies to keep polluting, most environmentalists and
European governments now view the practice as the easiest and most
comprehensive way to regulate industrial emissions.
"You are using profit motive to achieve a public good, and this is just
brilliant," Derwent, now head of the International Emissions Trading
Association, said on the sidelines of this week's UN climate change
conference in Thailand.
The carbon market is getting a boost in negotiations this week in
Bangkok to piece together a new global warming pact aimed at keeping
temperatures from rising so high they trigger an environmental
disaster. Negotiators have until late 2009 to complete work on an
agreement to take effect when the Kyoto Protocol runs out at the end of
2012.
Emissions trading is seen by many as the glue that will hold the system
together by reducing greenhouse gas production while generating funds
to develop clean technology and help poor countries adapt to
environmental changes such as rising sea-levels.
"A functioning carbon market will be critical to a successful
agreement," UN climate chief Yvo de Boer told The Associated Press
ahead of the Bangkok meeting.
A carbon trading market - or "cap-and-trade" system - works much like
any commodities market except that traders make their fees selling a
ton of carbon dioxide instead of corn or copper.
Countries that agree to reduction targets are given permits for an
amount of allowable carbon dioxide emissions which are passed onto
businesses. Companies can choose to cut their emissions by retrofitting
a factory and selling their permits for a profit - or continuing to
pollute and buying additional units of carbon dioxide on the open
market.
Under the 1997 Kyoto pact, countries also can earn credits by investing
in environmentally friendly projects in developing countries. A major attraction of carbon markets is their ability to generate money
to be put toward cutting emissions and helping countries adapt to the
effects of climate change.
The World Bank predicts that by 2030, it will cost between $28 billion
and $67 billion (R217.8 billion and R521.2 billion) annually to
relocate villages, build sea walls and help farmers adapt to the
worsening weather.
But carbon trading has plenty of critics, many of whom argue that it
does little or nothing to actually cut greenhouse gases. The EU system,
for example, has had a minimal impact on emissions in its first two
years.
The system has also been criticised for leaving out sectors like
transport and focusing on less profitable companies like cement or
chemical producers that must cut output or make major investments to
reduce emissions.
Other critics, like research fellows Benjamin Sovacool and Toby Carroll
at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, say market
solutions increase poor nations' dependence on the industrialised world
for such things as clean technology, allow industries to keep
polluting, and fail to change consumer consumption patterns.
"Until people consciously realise the situation that the world is in
and change their own patterns of behaviour, you can't change anything,"
Carroll said. "One of the reason carbon trading is so acceptable to the
powers-that-be is that it doesn't substantially impact on existing
operations."
Carroll and others argue that a more effective way to cut emissions would be a pollution tax.
While supporters agree that carbon markets alone cannot reduce
emissions, they insist they can change behaviour. They noted that the
European system has resulted in a number of coal plants being
mothballed and they predict they will spur investment in expensive but
clean technologies like solar energy and carbon sequestration and
storage in which carbon dioxide is stored underground.
"The point of the market is to find the most efficient way to reduce
emissions," said Greenpeace's Bill Hare, who supports the market but
admits he has concerns about the lack of regulations.
"The tighter the cap, the higher you will see carbon prices and the
more incentive to switch to investments to lower emitting technology
and practices," he said.
Also, carbon trading will generate money to meet funding needs of developing nations, proponents say.
"There is certainly reason to be optimistic," said Miles Austin, head
of European regulatory affairs for the carbon trading firm
EcoSecurities. But he also said much of the future growth depends on a
new climate pact that includes binding emissions reduction targets.
"The growth will begin to tail off by the end of the year if there
isn't increased clarity about what will happen post-2012," when the
Kyoto protocol expires, he said. - Sapa-AP Business Report
THE Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is piloting a multi-billion-rand agri-business project that could encourage Eastern Cape farmers to grow hemp and flax for the textile industry. The project is aimed at boosting economic activity. Hemp and flax are used for various purposes, including textiles and food. “The main objective is to exploit these plants to extract long and short fibre,” said CSIR fibres and textile manager Abisha Tembo. He said a recent presentation on this matter was well received by the provincial economic development forum and that a pilot project to grow flax would be established by the Cacadu district municipality before the end of the year. “Other than the two Industrial development zones in Port Elizabeth and East London, the automotive industry, and, to a smaller extent, sheep and angora goat farming, there is no other flagship economic project... “Growing and processing flax and hemp will provide a new industry that is viable and has the potential to be worth billions, if farmers get the required interventions in terms of government subsidies,” he said. Trials the institute had conducted in Qamata, Libode, Addo and East London had shown that the province had the right climate to cultivate the crops. Although hemp is illegal in South Africa as it is a member of the cannabis sativa family, various organisations, including the CSIR and the Agriculture Research Council, are lobbying government to change the legislation. CSIR natural plant fibre centre manager Sunshine Blouw said: “The advantage of the two plants is that flax is grown in winter and hemp in summer. Farmers can grow both in different seasons without having to acquire different technologies for production and processing as both plants use the same technology.” The CSIR, Blouw said, would help set up a processing and production facility in an area accessible to all farmers. “Ideally, the farmers should own it through a co-operative.” Notwithstanding China‘s dominance in textiles and clothing, Blouw said markets were available. “In 2004, South Africa imported R100-million worth of flax and R75-million worth of hemp. It would not make business sense to import if you can buy locally.” - The Herald
Alcohol is the primary drug of abuse in South Africa, with approximately 7.5 percent of the population engaging in weekend 'binge drinking' and Red Cross Children’s hospital has estimated that the total cost to the economy annually — including the cost of inability to work and child abuse —
is around R20–billion.
To put this into perspective, at least 400,000 RDP houses could be built each year with the money that alcohol abuse costs the country. If you are drinking two litres of beer each weekend (assuming that that is all that you are drinking) you are probably spending about R3120 on beer each year. Could your money be better spent?
The Deputy President is accompanied by the Minister of Housing, Lindiwe Sisulu and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Dirk Coetzee.
The Deputy President is currently in Lake Como near Milan where she is addressing the Ambrosetti Foundation Forum.
 |
| South African Work and Transport Minister from the State of Western Cape, Marius Fransman |
S Africa in Cuba for Building Savvy
Havana, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) South African Work and Transport Minister from the State of Western Cape, Marius Fransman, is visiting Havana invited by the Cuban Ministry of Construction.
Fransman told Prensa Latina that the support of Cuban experts to his country has greatly helped with the housing program.
He added "we will work on road infrastructure, which is the primary objective of our visit."
He said South African Minister of Transport and Public Works Tlhoko Didza will visit Havana Tuesday, to sign an agreement on public works with the Cuban Ministry of Construction.
"We are focused on building new ways to access cities, and Cuban experts' professionalism can help us in this task, all around the nation," the official pointed out.
The visitor wished a speedy recovery for Cuban President Fidel Castro, describing him as a universal celebrity.
"Many African countries are free because of Cubans, from whom we should not only learn in the area of construction, but also from the energy program and others that will surely be of the interest of the planet, he said. Cuba is on the other side of the planet... What did this fact finding mission cost in carbon credits and how are these carbon travel costs going to be offset by Housing in reducing the city footprint the State of the Western Cape?
The national Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with her Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) counterpart John Tibasima in a joint partnership aimed at various housing projects participation in the DRC.
Minister Lindiwe Sisulu for Housing directs the department to:
- Eradicate informal settlements in the next six years,
- Develop rented and social housing, which I direct must be achieved within the next four years.
- Cabinet would by the end of July receive the How and how Many - details of this commitment.
- Building the capacity of municipalities, government officials, contractors and councillors.
- Setting up a special investigative unit to route out corruption and maladministration.
- Popularising the concept of Letsema in Housing for communities to initiate their own housing solutions.
The government's bid to deliver urgently homes and provide people with shelter in the Western Cape had failed because "the rules and frameworks of the past" were not changed, Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi said at the launch of the Isidima housing strategy. This is ripe!
Considering MEC Richard Dyantyi had a hand in this development from planning to implementation!
http://news.google.co.za/archivesearch?q=%22N2+Gateway%22+&hl=en&sa=N&lnav=m&scoring=t
15 YEARS AFTER Apartheid!
Half HIS life AFTER apartheid!
THIS IS THE RIPEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD!
The Blame does not lie in the past - but in the preset and at Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi desk!!!!!
Anything less is failure to hold Public Officials accountable for their actions in office with public funds !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Budget Speech 2007/2008: Department of Local Government and Housing Vote 8 by: Richard Dyantyi, Provincial Minister of Local Government and Housing at Cape Town
7 June 2007
1. Introduction and previous year's commitments
On 24 May 2006, I delivered to all present what was a Maiden Budget Inaugural Speech. Mr Speaker, I concluded that Budget Speech by making significant commitments that had to be achieved in the course of the financial year 06/07. We stand here today to honestly reflect on those commitments. Perhaps before we reflect progress, allow me to remind you what those commitments were:
We said:
* We will deliver at least 16 000 houses and 18 000 serviced sites.
* We will develop an implementation plan for providing basic sanitation for all, and roll out at least 10 percent of that plan.
* We will relieve the stress in Site C, Khayelitsha through de-densification and upgrading.
* We will develop a shared services programme together with municipalities
* We will establish youth units in all five district municipalities and in the metro
* We will take another 250 Community Development Workers (CDWs) through to graduation.
* We will work together with South African Local Government Association (SALGA) Western Cape to provide a comprehensive councillor development programme.
* We will roll out a special leadership programme for women councillors.
* We will provide a training course in sustainable human settlement planning to Project Consolidate municipalities.
* We will assist identified Project Consolidate municipalities with the appointment of their municipal managers.
* We will see an improvement in the Auditor-General's reports on municipalities.
* We will see significantly improved municipal integrated development planning (IDPs) and Local Economic Development (LEDs) and they will be aligned with provincial and national strategies and policies.
* We will have a municipal monitoring system in place and an even more efficient department.
As we sit here this afternoon, I am happy to report to you that in the main we have surpassed what we set ourselves to do. Allow me to give you the progress on the above starting with housing, planning and development, local government, disaster management and fire brigade services.
On Housing:
Honourable Speaker, I stood here last year and made commitments to this House, I therefore think it is proper that I give this House feedback on those commitments. I am comfortable in the knowledge that many of the initiatives that I committed to in my inaugural budget speech have been realised and are bringing comfort, security and dignity to thousands of citizens of the Western Cape. One of my leading commitments centred around an initiative to attract additional funding for human settlements to our province, the basis of which was to demonstrate capacity to responsibly spend the entire housing conditional grant at an accelerated pace.
I can report that my department accomplished this three months before the end of the financial year, spending the entire grant allocation of R598 million by the end of December 2006. This achievement has instilled the necessary confidence in us and we were rewarded with a further allocation of R372 million from the National Treasury towards the N2 Gateway development. Responsible financial management guided us in the spending of this money that was received late in the financial year and we were able to spend a further R177 million by the end of March 2007.
Another of my commitments towards overcoming the housing backlog was to deliver 18 000 serviced sites and 16 000 houses based on an overall plan that was aimed at attracting an additional amount of R150 million. Both of these targets have been exceeded by 543 and 42 respectively. On Housing...3rd Paragraph:
Target exceeded: 16,042 houses & 18 453 Serviced Sites!
Cost: R150 Million
N2 Gateway : 702 Homes
Cost R372 Million (plus money allocated from the original R598 mill of 2006 and 2005's budget)
How is it that the N2 Gateway is the national housing flagship model that is going to be copied - if clearly there are other cheaper more effective models that the housing minister is aware of?
SALGA - Who exactly is the Minister of Housing going to work with? - - 10 May 2007 - -
Sixteen municipalities pull out of Salga
16
municipalities in the Western Cape have terminated their membership of
the South African Local Government Association (Salga) to form their
own workers’ organisation, the South African Municipal Workers Union
said on Thursday… SAPA What will the aim and tasks of the youth units be? In the Human Habitat Environment? Will they be assiting to build houses or lay reticulation?
Access to housing and shelterGrootboom
In 1999, about 500 children and 300 adults were evicted from the municipal land that they were occupying. Because they had nowhere else to go they applied to the Cape High Court to order the state to provide shelter or housing for them.
The Cape High Court refused their application for access to housing but did find that the children had a right to shelter and also not to be separated from their parents. Accordingly they should at least be provided with tents, water and sanitation facilities. An interdict was issued preventing the municipality from evicting the families.
The state bodies appealed against this judgement, contending that the provision of housing involved vast expense and should be planned properly by the legislature and the administration, not implemented on an ad hoc basis as decreed by the courts.
The matter was subsequently heard in the Constitutional Court, with the SAHRC and the Community Law Centre acting as amici curiae (friends of the court). The SAHRC felt that this case
was vital in showing that the Bill of Rights can be of practical benefit to vulnerable or marginalised people. Geoff Budlender, of the Legal Resource Centre, argued for the SAHRC that socio-
economic rights give substance and meaning to our Constitution.
Obviously government cannot immediately house all homeless people, but there has to be a starting point, and currently it seems to fall short of its obligations. The state has proposed an offer of settlement and the respondents were willing to accept “weatherproof” shelter.
The Court assessed the housing programme of the Cape Metro (which it regarded, generally, as“laudable”) but came to a conclusion that these measures fell short of what was required in that they made no provision for people in desperate need of housing.
It is important to note that the Court stated that this judgement should not be understood as“approving any practice of land invasion for the purpose of coercing a state structure into providing housing”.
Monitoring the implementation of the Grootboom judgement
In order to adequately monitor compliance with the Constitutional Court’s judgement, the SAHRC is developing a set of implementation criteria.
During a visit by the SAHRC to the Wallace Dene informal settlement on 12 January 2001, where the Grootboom applicants live, it also appeared that even the interim measures that were introduced while the case was still being decided by the Constitutional Court are not in compliance with theundertakings given by the local authority at the time. For example, residents do not have free access to water, as promised. Water points that were installed offer water for sale and most of these were not working. A further troubling aspect is that no steps have been taken by the local authority to give effect to the court’s order even thought the judgement was handed down on 4 October 2000, some 6 months ago.
The matter is clearly of national and international interest, and the SAHRC is being asked by a number of people how it plans to fulfil its obligations in terms of the court order. The SAHRC
anticipates making the monitoring of this case a priority for 2001.
In respons to André du Plessis's message below
--------
Thanks for your posting. In a day or two, please check out the summary of the 70 ideas-to-action being presented to Forum participants. It will be available at www.habitatjam.com.
Posted by:
Charles Kelly |
June 15, 2006 at 10:39
THE WORLD IS IN BIG TROUBLE
SYNOPSIS
Never before has the world had to face the massive problems it now does.The earth cannot sustain the current population with an acceptable lifestyle for all.
The following paper although only a few pages long sets out very clearly and simply why overpopulation greed and exploitation of resources (including labour) has led to these massive problems.It briefly outlines the causes of overpopulation and environmental degradation. More importantly it sets out clearly and succinctly the actions required both in the short and longer term, to effectively tackle overpopulation,environmental degradation and gross human suffering.
Please take a couple of minutes to read it
Sisulu could not say how much of the government's housing money is lost to corruption, but said the housing ministry will embark on a study with the auditor general to determine the extent of corruption in provinces like Limpopo.
Another problem is shoddy workmanship by construction companies. She acknowledged that in areas of the Free State this is a "serious problem".
"We are putting together a housing code so that we can apply a uniform standard and are going to have a 'living-worthy certificate'."
She rejected the idea of turning dagga plants into bricks as a cheaper alternative to building materials.
"It's a very cooling method of building a house, but not what we advocate." -- Sapa
MAYORS ROUNDTABLE
Local Government at the Crossroads:
Approaching the Millennium Development Goals Through Practical Innovation and Local Action
Organized in cooperation with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), and their networks Local governments are crucial to local implementation of the MDGs. Local governments are responsible not only for the provision of services directly linked with MDG targets, but for strengthening governance through the engagement of civil society and partnership with the private sector. By invitation to 115 participants, the Mayors Roundtable will gather elected local government officials, UN-HABITAT Governing Council members and donor representatives. With a focus on actions and solutions required to address the challenges facing local governments in achieving the MDGs, this mix of leaders and decision-makers from the developed and developing world will ensure a lively and productive discussion.
Co-chairs:
Gérald Tremblay, Vice-President, Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (AIMF), Vice-President, UCLG; Mayor, City of Montreal, Canada
Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Co-President, UCLG; Councillor of Tshwane, South Africa
Moderator:
Dominique Dennery, President, Dennery Resources, Canada
Remarks:
Inga Bjork-Klevby, Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations; Deputy Executive Director, UN-HABITAT, Kenya
PLENARY SESSION
Social Inclusion and Cohesion
Marginalisation, social exclusion and urban poverty are becoming key challenges facing cities in the urban millennium. Unprecedented urbanization and inadequate urban policies (including insecurity of tenure) are the main causes of the formation of slums. Pro-poor, gender sensitive urban policies and enabling legislation at the national and international levels are necessary to help overcome this challenge, while good urban governance and consistent leadership are required to implement effective strategies at the local level.
Moderator:
Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair, Global Water Partnership, Canada
Speakers:
Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Government of the United States of America
Jockin Arputham, National Slum Dwellers Federation of India
Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of Housing, Government of South Africa
Dialogue 1 – Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, Slum Upgrading and Affordable Housing
Following on the conclusions of the World Urban Forum II and the recent MDGs Millennium Summit, this dialogue will address the challenges and opportunities for the achievement of the MDGs target on slums. In light of the scale and severity of the slum challenge, participants will explore practical solutions such as the provision of security of tenure and affordable land, the need for inclusive slum upgrading processes that empower the urban poor, as well as adequate mechanisms for financing slum upgrading, affordable housing, and proactive programmes to avoid the formation of new slums.
Participants represent the whole spectrum of stakeholders and come with concrete experiences. They have all actively contributed to a wide range of slum upgrading programmes, delivery of affordable housing and promotion of security of tenure.
Facilitator:
Jacques Bensimon, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson, National Film Board of Canada
Commentators to include:
Rose Molokoane, South African Homeless People’s Federation, South Africa
Luz Maria Sanchez Hurtado, Executive Director, Estrategia, Peru
Arif Hassan, Chairman, Urban Resource Centre (URC), Pakistan
Miloon Kothari, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right of Adequate Housing |
PLENARY SESSION
Partnership and Finance
Economically vibrant cities are now committed to partnerships with a range of stakeholders at local, national and international levels; enabling the leveraging of resources for investment, learning from each other’s best practices, and enhancing productivity. In addition, this plenary will address the links between urban safety and security, economic growth and poverty reduction.
Moderator:
Katherine Sierra, Vice President and Network Head, Infrastructure, World Bank, USA
Speakers:
Mohammad Yousaf Pashtun, Minister of Urban Development, Government of Afghanistan
Pat Jacobsen, Chief Executive Offi cer, TransLink, Canada
Pape Diop, Mayor of Dakar; President, National Assembly, Senegal (TBC) |
Dialogue 1 – Urban Safety & Security: Taking Responsibility
Disasters and crime represent an enormous risk factor for investment and wealth creation in cities and a major hindrance to economically vibrant, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable urban development. The Dialogue will seek to highlight why prevention is better than cure: its cost effectiveness and results, either for reducing the incidence and the impact of disasters, or to limit the occurrence of crime. The key message of the forum is that unless action is taken to assess and prevent causes of crime and disaster, and reduce vulnerability, sustainable urban development is in jeopardy.
Facilitator:
Anna Maria Tremonti, Host, The Current, CBC, Canada
Commentators to include:
Juan Manuel Ospina Restrepo, Secretario de Gobierno de Bogotá, Colombia
Carole Kidu, Minister of Community Development, Papua New Guinea
Michel Marcus, Executive Director, European Forum for Urban Safety, France
Ghulam Sakhi Noorzad, Mayor of Kabul, Afghanistan
Ian Davies, Visiting Professor, Cranfi eld University, United Kingdom |
PLENARY SESSION
Urban Growth and Environment
The urban environment, at a time of rapid growth, has become a global concern. Sound planning and management will be a major factor in ensuring sustainable urban development.
Moderator:
Chris Leach, President, Canadian Institute of Planners, Canada
Speakers:
Enrique Peñalosa, Visiting Scholar, New York University, USA ; former Mayor, City of Bogotá, Columbia
Evelyn Herfkens, Executive Coordinator, Millennium Campaign, United Nations, USA |
Dialogue 1 – The Shape of Cities: Urban Planning and Management
Although there is some consensus on how cities should be run, there is still some uncertainty about the crucial ingredients — governance, management and planning. A key element in the mixture is urban planning. For long the dominant model, it has fallen into disfavour, particularly in the developing world. It is now re-emerging as a powerful tool, but which has a changed relationship with management and governance. The purpose of this dialogue will be to focus on the new role of planning vis-à-vis these other elements.
The leitmotif of the dialogue will therefore be “planning in a state of flux”.
The dialogue will examine the past problems of planning, and then look at current approaches and methods that overcome these obstacles. The dialogue will build upon the contributions of the World Planners’ Congress that will immediately precede the World Urban Forum.
Facilitator:
Steve Bradshaw, Producer, BBC-Panorama, United Kingdom
Commentators to include:
John Friedmann, Honorary Professor, School of Community & Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, Canada
Tasneem Essop, Minister of Environment, Planning and Economic Development, Provincial Government of the Western Cape, South Africa
Sunita Narain, Center for Science and Environment (CSE), India
Herbert Girardet, Environmental Consultant and Senior Adviser to Dontang Eco-City, China
Clif Hague, President, Commonwealth Association of Planners, United Kingdom |
SPECIAL SESSION
Future of Cities
Organized in cooperation with the World Watch Institute, UN-HABITAT and the Government of Canada
This discussion will draw upon a panel of well-known urban experts who will make short presentations on where cities are today and what they will look like in the future. The discussion will begin with highlights from the State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/7. The panelists will be asked to give their impressions on what they see as the major trends and challenges facing cities in the 21st century.
Facilitator:
Ben Malor, UN Radio
Speakers:
Inga Bjork-Klevby, Assistant Secretary General, United Nations; Deputy Executive Director, UN-HABITAT, Kenya
John Friedmann, Honorary Professor in Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, Canada
Janice Perlman, Executive Director, Megacities Project, USA
Xuemei Bai, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan
Kalpana Sharma, Mumbai Bureau Chief, The Hindu, India
David Satterthwaite, Senior Fellow, Human Settlements, International Institute for Environment and Development, United Kingdom
Clive Harridge, President, Town Planning Institute, United Kingdom
CLOSING SESSION AND CEREMONY
The WUF III closing session and ceremony will both celebrate the achievements of the conference and look to the future.
The session will open with the tabling and presentation of a Report by the WUF III Advisory Board, appointed by the UN-HABITAT Executive Director, on the key issues raised at the Forum. This will be followed by remarks from various civil society groups who will comment on their forward planning as a result of the outcomes of the Forum. The closing ceremony will also mark the introduction of Nanjing, China as the next host city for World Urban Forum IV (2008).
Presentation of the Report on WUF III
Closing Plenary Speakers:
John Pombe Magufuli, Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Government of Tanzania; Co-chair, WUF III
Pierre Sané, Assistant Director-General, UNESCO
John Kaputin, Secretary General, African Caribbean and Pacific Group Secretariat, Belgium
Representatives of HABITAT Partners:
• Civil Society
• Women
• Private Sector
• Youth
Welcome to Nanjing, China & WUF IV
Wang Guangtao, Minister of Construction, China
Lu Bing, Deputy Mayor of Nanjing, China
Film presentation of the host city and country for WUF IV
Closing Remarks:
Anna Tibaijuka, Under Secretary-General, United Nations; Executive Director, UN-HABITAT, Kenya
James Moore, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works; Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics, Government of Canada (TBC)
WUF III closes with a truly unique, truly Canadian theatrical event; the Canadian Cirque. Performers will defy your imagination with their acrobatic feats, strength and elegance choreographed in a lavish performance exclusive to the World Urban Forum. Come and experience the magic of Cirque.
PLENARY SESSION
Social Inclusion and Cohesion
Marginalisation, social exclusion and urban poverty are becoming key challenges facing cities in the urban millennium. Unprecedented urbanization and inadequate urban policies (including insecurity of tenure) are the main causes of the formation of slums. Pro-poor, gender sensitive urban policies and enabling legislation at the national and international levels are necessary to help overcome this challenge, while good urban governance and consistent leadership are required to implement effective strategies at the local level.
Moderator:
Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair, Global Water Partnership, Canada
Speakers:
Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Government of the United States of America
Jockin Arputham, National Slum Dwellers Federation of India
Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of Housing, Government of South Africa
Amnesty International has released images showing the destruction caused in Zimbabwe by the government’s policy of forceful house demolitions in 2005.
The satellite images show the destruction of one settlement near Harare, which had contained some 850 structures before last May.
The human rights group says the photos are irrefutable evidence how entire communities were obliterated.
The UN says some 700,000 people were directly affected by the demolitions.
The Zimbabwean government launched Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), saying that informal settlements around the capital were not desirable and their residents should return to the rural areas. BBC
InternAfrica aim to empower citizens with the knowledge to delivery their own solution and to build their own homes.
InternAfrica is steadfast in preventing a similar situation as in Zimbabwe, from happening here in South Africa. Your Support is greatly valued. Please visit for regular updates on developments concerning the Human Habitat and sustainable solutions we offer.
May 24, 2006
Against a backdrop of a transport crisis, a need for more housing and services, and greater job-creation and poverty relief efforts, it emerged at Monday’s Mayco meeting that by the end of April, city departments had spent just R928,7-million, leaving R992,1m-unspent.
Excluding the R408,6-million spending shortfall on the N2 Gateway project, the major shortfalls occur in roads and stormwater (R106-million), transport (R93.3-million), housing (R81-million), electricity (R78.3-million), water (R69.5-million) and social development (R44-million). Cape Times
Yesterday morning, in what we sincerely hope becomes a watershed moment for the city, premier Rasool addressed some 100 prominent business, religious, academic, media, sports, community and labour leaders.
He did so flanked by Zille and Richard Dyantyi, MEC for local government and housing, in the context of a frank admission that “political leadership may not be enough to tackle the challenges we face”. Cape Times
May 23, 2006
Two far-reaching projects - the City of Cape Town’s transfer of assets to the regional electricity distributor RED1 and the implementation of the national Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), which aims to create a million jobs nationally - have been put on hold because of financial concerns.
And the proposed annual salary of R1,25-million for RED1’s chief executive has been rejected as “completely out of line”.
At a special mayoral committee (mayco) meeting on Monday, Ian Neilson recommended that the proposed salaries for RED1’s top structure be reviewed. He emphasised that the benchmark should be the municipal salary structure, not Eskom’s. Cape Times
|
Don't berate us for our open-door policy
|
June 15, 2006
In the ongoing debate on the N2 Gateway housing fiasco, two peripheral but important issues need clarification. They both arise from accusations made against the City of Cape Town by the national Ministry of Housing, under Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
In their attempt to justify the city's exclusion from the project, Sisulu has accused me of forwarding a copy of a letter I wrote to her to the media. This letter expressed my concerns and asked for clarification on key aspects of the N2 Gateway project, for which the city has received demands for unauthorised payments amounting to millions of rands.
The media reported the contents of the letter after I presented it to a routine housing portfolio committee meeting.
We run an open committee system in the council, in order to ameliorate the problems associated with the executive mayoral system, so that the public (through the media) can hold us accountable for decisions and actions. This is what happened in this case, and there was nothing unprofessional or unethical about it, as the minister claims.
We acted within the letter and the spirit of the constitution, as well as established protocol. If the previous ANC administration in the city had run an open committee system, the N2 Gateway would have been subject to appropriate scrutiny from the start and would not have degenerated into the debacle that it now is.
The second accusation that warrants a reply is the insinuation by Mr Saths Moodley, the minister's special adviser, that I wantonly absented myself from an "M3" meeting on May 31. This meeting (which is supposed to include the minister, the provincial MEC for housing and the mayor) was called to discuss (among other things) the N2 Gateway project.
The facts are as follows: the minister's office changed the date and time of the proposed meeting twice in two days. I willingly re-arranged my diary twice to accommodate the minister. At 24 hours' notice, the minister's office provided us a third (and final) date for the meeting on Wednesday, May 31.
This happened to be budget day in the council, where I had to deliver the budget speech.
In addition, the ANC/ID were planning to support a resolution to unseat the multi-party government at this meeting. Under these circumstances I could not attend the M3 meeting and sent appropriate apologies.
I trust this clarifies the issues above.
The city remains committed to playing its role in implementing national housing policy in a legal, efficient and sustainable manner.
Helen Zille
Mayor of Cape Town |
Slum dwellers of world unite
The poor demand a voice in how they live, activist from India tells World Urban Forum
- Jockin Arputham challenged delegates to the World Urban Forum to join the slum-dwellers movement that is saving its own members.Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, June 21, 2006
"The poor" have had it with listening to professional conference-goers tell them how to fix their lives, the Gandhi of the Indian slum-dwellers movement told delegates to the World Urban Forum on Tuesday.
Instead, in an acerbic, no-holds-barred speech to the plenary session that kicked off the forum's second day, Jockin Arputham challenged delegates to join the slum-dwellers movement that is saving its own members.
"We will no more be taking it lying down. You are trying to design our lives. We are not going to quietly sit and say, 'Look at us and try to decide the way we should be living,' " said Arputham, a tiny man who has received awards for 30 years of work in his own slum neighbourhood and others to improve services, education and housing.
"That is why we decided we will no more take the help of these kind of lip-service people."
Arputham and slum- and shack-dweller groups around the world have opted to come up with their own collective solutions to poverty. Their projects have ranged from group savings accounts to house construction to public-toilet maintenance.
With the help of some supportive international-aid organizations, they have also made efforts to form networks and even do exchange visits to learn from each other -- something poverty groups do only rarely.
So far, groups in different countries have built 520,000 houses.
Arputham urged governments and non-profit groups to get behind what slum dwellers are doing instead of just having conferences, which he said appear to be designed mainly to keep the poverty-conference industry going.
"What are all these words? Two hundred conferences, 600 documents, 700 seminars," he mocked, provoking laughter among the 2,000-some people in the ballroom at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre. "While you are doing this, our people are poorer and multiplying a hundredfold."
Arputham praised South Africa and its housing minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, for being one of the rare countries to put its money to work for people, instead of just having more conferences to talk.
Sisulu, who was also a speaker at the plenary session, pledged the equivalent of $30 million Cdn to South African slum dweller and housing organizations last month in order to produce housing built by slum dwellers themselves.
Others should do the same, Arputham said.
"We request our friends throughout the world, especially the First World, to stop crying. You have to join us. You will be left out high and dry unless you join us. We are going to change the world."
In an interview after the plenary, Arputham was critical of the governments and international organizations that promote private land and home ownership as the way to solve slum-housing problems. He said people need collective solutions to survive.
fbula@png.canwest.com
Cannabrick Demonstration
Demonstrated out side the Department of Housing- Plant a cannabis seed. Water and allow the plant to grow and produce seed. Plant and water these seeds. Your goal is to grow enough to build a house, you will need about 1 acre to build a 5 roomed home.
Tyala imbewu ntsangu (ye-cannabis). Nkcenkceshela imbewu uze uyinike ithuba lokuba ikhule ide ikhuphe eyayo imbewu. Uyothi ke uyityale nalembewu uyinkcenkceshele njalo. Injongo yakho kukukhulisa izityalo ezothi zonele ekwakheni indlu, uyakudinga i-acre (malunga nentsimi) enye ukuze wakhe indlu enamagumbi amahlanu.
- Consider the many relevant points presented in the guidelines of Build your house step-by-step.
Qwalasela yonke imigaqo oyibekelweyo kwincwadana i-Build Your House Step By Step.
Start planning where your house will stand. Consider everything about the environment you’ll be building in, like winter and summer sunshine, wind and rain – you don’t want to build on a floodplain, or your house will wash away. Be sure to plan all your water and waste requirements.
Ceba indawo ozokwakha kuyo indlu yakho. Qwalasela yonke into ngomhlaba lo uzokwakha kuwo indlu yakho, izinto ezinje ngemimoya, ilanga, neemvula zehlobo nobusika, akekho umntu ofuna ukwakha indlu yakhe emgxobhozweni okanye apho iyothi ibe lilifa lezikhukhula khona. Uqiniseke ukuba unamanzi akulungeleyo ukwenza oku.
Cut the grown cannabis plants down and leave in the field to rhett for a week. The morning dew and natural rotting process will loosen the fibers from the plant.
a. Process the plant matter by cutting leaves and branches off, then hit small bundles the length of the plant over and upturned rake.
b. The long fiber parts that remain in your hand are good for weaving rugs and making various other items your skills can accomplish.
c. The seed can be gathered for more housing.
d. Gather the small woody bits (the hurd) that have fallen, this waste is what will be used in the construction material.
Sika / sarha izityalo uzibeke egadini ixesha elingangeveki ukuze zibole. Umbethe wasekuseni nezinye izinto zendalo ezibolisayo ziya kuyikhulula I-fibre ezityalweni.
a. Yikhawulezise ngohlukanisa intonga zezityalo namagqabi, uhlale uyiharika rhoqo.
b. Intonga ezi zinothi zincede kwezinye izinto ezifana nokwenza ingubo nezinye izinto onothi uzibonele zona ngokolwazi lwakho.
c. Imbewu inokuqokelelwe ukwakha ezinye izindlu.
d. Qokelela imithana ethe yaziwela njengokuba uzoyisebenzisa xa usakha indlu yakho.
Wash the hurd, dry it, then wash it again. Be careful not to allow the matter to rot or decay during this process, by turning, airing and allowing the African sun to dry the hurd properly. Now combine in proportions 10:2:3:3 combine the cannabis/ntsangu/dagga Hurd(10), washed river sand 0.5mm(2), hydraulic lime(3) and water(3) to make the mulch (This process may need tweaking depending on your geographic location, humidity, rainfall etc)
Hlamba ingqokelela yakho, uyomise, uphinde uyihlambe.Ulumkele ukuba lengqokelela ibole kwelithuba, yiguquguqule, uyivumele ibethwe ngumoya uvumele nelanga lase Afrika liyomise lengqokelela. Dibanisa ngokwalo mgaqo 10:2:3:3, dibanisa ke lemvuno yakho yomgquba wentsangu (10) kunye nesanti yasemlanjeni 0.5mm(2), ikalika (3) kunye namanzi (3) ukwenza udaka (Nale into ke iyokuthi ixhomekeke kwindawo leyo ukuyo nemvula zakhona njalo-njalo).
Now build your house! Ngoku ke yakha indlu yakho!
Teach others. Fundisa abanye. 
· You can use this “dagga-cement” for making bricks, shutter casting or the proven “pole-and-dagga” method. This last method allows for a sturdy, warm, fireproof and water proof home – built with pride and intuitive engineering, not a ‘uniform box’. Be sure to consider all aspects of your house design and structural requirements. Although the cannabis-cement will become stronger than steel in time, it is not advised to build over 2 floors high without considering structural implications. With planning this cement can be used to build up to 4 floors high.
The cannabis-cement will dry over a period of a month (depending on the weather). At this point you will be able to add the roof. Seal your home’s walls with lime; lime external walls annually. Decorate your house with masonry to make it unique, and paint with coloured lime as per custom. Always PLANT A TREE in a place that will provide shade, to commemorate this accomplishment. Council will plant trees if citizens care for them. Call (021) 689-8938 http://www.trees.org.za/ Assist your family, friends or neighbors with your experience and expertise. Share information and technique; you can uplift yourself and your community. 
Tell your friends and colleagues about the Habitat JAM!
http://www.habitatjam.com
| Building the Green Way | |
 |
| | A substantial body of experience and a set of tested standards have made “green” a realistic choice for most building projects. Here are ten practical design and construction rules that will help you conserve the Earth’s resources and your budget. | |
|
| | |
|
| | by Charles Lockwood | |
|
|
| | The dramatic, 647,000-square-foot PNC Firstside Center in downtown Pittsburgh boasts a magnificent facade of curving glass, steel, and stone overlooking the Monongahela River. The winner of several design awards, the building rises from a large plaza graced with waterfalls and fountains. Its airy, light-filled interior has 11-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, an atrium, an open floor plan, and all the latest building system technologies, including individual climate controls. What most observers don’t realize is that this is a “green,” or environmentally and economically sustainable, workplace—and that it costs 20% less per square foot to operate than its comparably sized “standard” sister building in Philadelphia.
Green buildings, as many know, have less negative impact on the environment than standard buildings. Their construction minimizes on-site grading, saves natural resources by using alternative building materials, and recycles construction waste rather than sending truck after truck to landfills. A majority of a green building’s interior spaces have natural lighting and outdoor views, while highly efficient HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning) systems and low-VOC (volatile organic compound) materials like paint, flooring, and furniture create a superior indoor air quality.
Just five or six years ago, the term “green building” evoked visions of tie-dyed, granola-munching denizens walking around barefoot on straw mats as wind chimes tinkled near open windows. Today, the term suggests lower overhead costs, greater employee productivity, less absenteeism, and stronger employee attraction and retention. Companies as diverse as Bank of America, Genzyme, IBM, and Toyota are constructing or have already moved into green buildings. Green is not simply getting more respect; it is rapidly becoming a necessity as corporations—as well as home builders, retailers, health care institutions, governments, and others—push green buildings fully into the mainstream over the next five to ten years.
In fact, the owners of standard buildings face massive obsolescence. They must act now to protect their investments. “Building owners are starting to do reviews of their portfolios to see how green their buildings are and what they need to do to meet growing market demand,” says Ché Wall, chair of the World Green Building Council. Citigroup, for example, has already begun looking at how its 100 largest buildings stack up against accepted green standards. Based on those findings, the company will then review its worldwide real estate portfolio and create a green road map to help improve the efficiency of its buildings. Soon, financial institutions and investors will use new valuation methodologies to quantify important green building factors like productivity and long-term life cycle costs when determining real estate values.
The Shift to Green
Before 2000, companies generally regarded green buildings as interesting experiments but unfeasible projects in the real business world. Since then, several factors have caused a major shift in thinking.
First, the creation of reliable building-rating and performance measurement systems for new construction and renovations has helped change corporate perceptions about green. In 2000, for example, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in Washington, DC, launched its rigorous Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating program. LEED evaluates buildings and awards points in six areas, such as innovation and design process. The program has Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum award levels. Other rating programs include the UK’s BREEAM (Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method) and Australia’s Green Star. Certainly, companies can create green buildings without using these rating programs, and many that do follow program guidelines choose not to spend the time and money applying for certification. Nevertheless, certification assures prospective buyers and tenants that a building is truly sustainable. (For more on these rating programs, see the “Green Standards” sidebar.)
 Green Standards
Second, hundreds of U.S. and international studies have proven the financial advantages of going green. Well-designed green buildings, for example, have lower utility costs. In its first year of operation, Genzyme Center—Genzyme Corporation’s 12-story LEED-Platinum headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts—used 42% less energy and 34% less water than standard buildings of comparable size. Green buildings can also boost employee productivity by approximately 15%, in part because they use alternative building materials that don’t emit toxins, like formaldehyde, that are commonly found in standard building materials and workplaces. At Genzyme Center, 58% of the 920 employees report that they’re more productive there than they were in Genzyme’s former headquarters building. Employee sick time in the new headquarters is 5% lower than for all of Genzyme’s other Massachusetts facilities combined. Moreover, green design criteria—including abundant daylighting, individual climate controls, and outdoor views—raise morale and employee satisfaction, which also improves productivity.
Built to Save
Finally, green building materials, mechanical systems, and furnishings have become more widely available, and their prices have dropped considerably—in some cases below the cost of their standard counterparts. According to Turner Construction chairman Thomas C. Leppert, four industry studies of more than 150 sustainable buildings across the United States show that, on average, it costs only 0.8% more to achieve basic LEED certification than to construct a standard building. The PNC Firstside Center was already under construction as a standard building when the owner, PNC Financial Services Group, decided to go green instead. Even so, the project was completed two months early, came in $4 million under the original (and only) construction budget, and earned LEED’s Silver rating. Now, PNC has constructed several of more than 200 planned green bank branches. The average construction time was 45 days faster than for PNC’s traditional branches, and the costs were the same or lower. In the northeastern United States, for example, PNC’s green branches each came in $100,000 below the cost of a competitor’s new standard branches.
Building green is no longer a pricey experiment; just about any company can do it on a standard budget by implementing the following ten rules.
Rule 1: Focus on the Big Picture
According to William Browning, a senior fellow at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, integrating green principles into a building’s planning and design process can generate 40% more savings and 40% better performance than simply adding green technologies to a traditionally planned and designed facility. Planning, designing, and constructing a green building isn’t like installing new signage or adding a design feature at the last minute. If a company wants to stay within a standard budget and reap the full benefits of a sustainable building, all development decisions from the start must be guided by a green mind-set.
To launch a successful green planning and design process, it’s important to hire the right project team members: architects, engineers, contractors, and consultants who are knowledgeable about the broad spectrum of green design tools and technologies and who have experience planning and constructing a variety of green facilities. Team members who are unfamiliar with green will often resist any deviation from standard design principles, building materials, and construction processes. They will make mistakes on everything from the amount of insulation needed to the selection of interior components like nontoxic flooring, therefore limiting the building’s sustainability and having a negative impact on the budget.
A collaborative green project team begins by examining the building site, the exterior and interior plans, and the budget—managing up front each planning decision’s effect on the overall project. A green planning and design process was essential to the success of the nine-story, $112 million (in Australian currency) global headquarters for Lend Lease in Sydney, Australia. The company wanted the building to set a new benchmark for energy efficiency and indoor air quality to increase worker satisfaction and retention, but it insisted on a standard budget. Also, the city had imposed height and building density limits, so the building needed to have the greatest possible amount of usable space on each floor. One way the project team surmounted these challenges was by selecting a water-based, chilled beam air-conditioning system. Although it cost 30% more to install than a standard system, the water-cooled system was 30% more energy efficient and took up less room between ceilings and floors, leaving more usable space on each floor. The team reexamined all of the other planned elements as well. Replacing standard T-8 lamps, for example, with more energy efficient T-5 lamps (with smaller housing units) was another way to save space, which helped reduce materials and construction costs.
Rule 2: Choose a Sustainable Site
If a building or a business campus is going to be truly green, it cannot be constructed on prime farmland, parkland, a historic or prehistoric site, or the habitat of an endangered species, nor can it be built within 100 feet of wetlands. Ideal locations for sustainable development include in-fill properties like parking lots and vacant lots, redevelopment sites like rail yards, and remediated brownfields. By choosing such locations, companies avoid contributing to sprawl and the degradation of environmentally significant sites, often while being near services they need.
Genzyme Center earned its LEED-Platinum rating in part because of its location. The building stands on a remediated brownfield site (where a coal gasification plant once stood). It is adjacent to a power plant—something that might typically be considered a challenge because it means unattractive views for workers and visitors. Genzyme, however, turned the plant’s proximity into an opportunity by piping the plant’s “waste” steam into the center’s HVAC system to warm the building in the winter and cool it (with two steam absorption chillers) in the summer. Adopting this steam system reduced the building’s electrical requirements and energy costs, and those savings are reimbursing the company for the system’s higher up-front capital costs.
The LEED rating program gives points to properties located within a quarter mile of bus lines and within half a mile of rail and subway lines. Genzyme Center is a five-minute walk from a mass-transit station. Approximately 25% of the building’s 920 employees leave their cars at home.
Rule 3: Do the Math
To complete a successful green building on a standard budget, the project team must apply a cost/benefit analysis to each component before allocating funding. For instance, a green roof costs more than a standard roof to install, but it brings a larger return on investment because it lasts years longer and provides more benefits, particularly storm water management and lower energy costs. (See Rule 5 and Rule 8.)
When DPR Construction planned its green regional office in Sacramento, California, it used a proprietary software program called Ecologic3 to analyze the costs and benefits of each point in the LEED rating system for this building, as well as the costs to own and operate it. According to Ted van der Linden, DPR’s director of sustainable construction, the company weighed each possible LEED credit against the overall $6.2 million budget, projecting the costs and benefits of each credit, as well as a ten-year return on investment. DPR found that approximately $85,000 of the $6.2 million would be spent on additional green up-front costs, including architecture and engineering design fees. Over the first ten years, however, the 52,300-square-foot office building will more than make up that $85,000 by generating $400,000 in operations savings.
Cost/benefit analyses should also incorporate the financial assistance, tax breaks, and other incentives that more and more cities, states, and utility companies offer to organizations that construct green buildings. Chicago, for example, awards floor area ratio (FAR) density bonuses for downtown buildings that have green roofs. Since 2000, New York State’s Green Building Tax Credit has given deductions against a company’s or developer’s state tax bill for projects that meet specific sustainable requirements, like the under-construction Bank of America Tower in Manhattan. California’s Savings by Design program—sponsored by four of the state’s largest utility companies—provides design assistance and subsidies for energy efficient nonresidential buildings.
Rule 4: Make the Site Plan Work for You
Site planning can minimize the amount of on-site infrastructure like roads and parking lots, reduce grading and other earthwork, limit erosion, maximize sediment control, and provide easy access to public transportation—all of which will earn LEED points, lower construction costs, and reduce the facility and infrastructure footprint. IBM Tivoli Systems, for example, has dedicated 70% (63 acres) of its 90-acre headquarters campus in Austin, Texas, to open space. The rest of the site has been designated for structures (up to eight office buildings and parking garages) and infrastructure.
Toyota’s Green Acres
One simple site-planning strategy that can reap significant benefits is building orientation. Consider interior lighting. Typically, it makes up 20% to 25% of an office building’s direct energy use partly because heat generated by the lights leads to more air-conditioning. Building orientation, however, can create a daylit interior that needs much less artificial lighting, saving money both up front and over the long run. In locations commonly subject to winds, buildings can be oriented to capture the breezes through rooftop clerestories and other windows that provide cross-ventilation.
Rule 5: Landscape for Savings
Landscaping, particularly in suburban locations, is another cost-effective green tool. It is especially good at minimizing heat islands—the buildup of heat from sunlight pouring onto dark, nonreflective surfaces. West- and south-facing building walls, for example, often become heat islands. Covering them with green screens (metal lattices planted with vines or climbing flowers) will greatly reduce the heat island effect and minimize interior solar heat gain. Mature trees can shade building walls, roofs on low-rise buildings, roads, and parking areas.
A green roof landscaped with drought-tolerant grasses and plants also lessens the heat island effect. On a downtown building that is surrounded by many other buildings—each of which acts as a heat island—the impact can be dramatic. For example, studies show that Chicago City Hall’s landscaped roof surface was, on average, 70 degrees cooler in the summer than the standard dark, heat-trapping roofs of nearby buildings, and the air temperature above the roof was 15 degrees cooler. A green roof also helps clean the air, serves as a wildlife habitat, and absorbs and filters rain that would otherwise flood storm drains and streets.
Rule 6: Design for Greater Green
Companies can use a wide variety of techniques to cost-effectively design a green building. A long and narrow building shape, for example, maximizes natural lighting and ventilation for workers. Locating fixed elements like stairs, mechanical systems, and restrooms at the building’s core creates a flexible and open perimeter, which also allows daylight to reach work areas. Operable windows and skylights enable natural ventilation in temperate weather. Windows with low-E (low-emission) glazing minimize interior solar heat gain and glare.
The LEED-Platinum CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad, India—the greenest building in the world when it was completed in 2003, according to the USGBC—was given a circular design that brings sunlight to every part of the 20,000-square-foot building. During the day, artificial lighting is not used in 90% of the Green Business Centre. Thanks to its green design and energy efficient technologies, it uses 55% less energy than a standard building of similar size.
Rule 7: Take Advantage of Technology
Green building technologies help conserve and even generate energy. Companies can, for example, install motion-sensitive lighting sensors and individual climate controls in offices and at workstations. They can also purchase highly efficient HVAC systems that do not use chlorofluorocarbon-, hydrochlorofluorocarbon-, or halon-based refrigerants, which deplete the ozone and require more energy than green refrigerants (ones that are chlorine free, for instance). Again, such technologies cost more up front than standard building systems, but companies and developers can stay on a mainstream budget by taking advantage of the growing number of incentives and funding opportunities offered to companies installing building systems that save energy over the long run.
Advanced energy-conserving systems and many other green features took up almost $23 million (16%) of Genzyme Center’s $140 million budget. (LEED-Platinum buildings are more costly than other green buildings because they are testing the new designs, technologies, and building materials that will become accepted components in the future.) Genzyme, however, expects the building’s green components to generate a return on investment in ten years, in part through lower operating costs but primarily through increased productivity, longer employee retention, and less sick time.
Green facilities can also produce some of their own electricity with alternative technologies. The experimental green Wal-Mart Supercenter in Aurora, Colorado, has a 50-kilowatt wind turbine, natural gas microturbines, and photovoltaic systems attached to the rooftop clerestories.
Rule 8: Save and Manage Water
As water becomes scarcer and more expensive in many parts of the world, firms need to focus on conservation. They can install water-conserving irrigation systems and plumbing, waterless urinals (which are more sanitary than standard ones), and native and drought-tolerant landscape plants, and they can use recycled (not potable) water for landscaping needs.
Many jurisdictions have storm water management regulations that property owners must satisfy to limit the risk of flooding in heavy rain and reduce pollutants, like motor oil and fertilizer, that are swept into storm water. While an undeveloped site is able to absorb a significant amount of rainfall, impermeable surfaces like buildings and parking lots greatly increase the amount and speed of storm water flowing through and off the site, raising the risk of flooding. To address this problem, the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Aurora has two 400-foot-long tree-shaded bioswales (shallow canals lined with plants) in its parking lot that help slow and cleanse rainfall runoff from the parking lot and building roof and create an attractive pedestrian environment. Green roofs and man-made retention ponds and wetlands are other effective storm water management tools that can also beautify and add value to a property.
Rule 9: Use Alternative Materials
Green building materials create a healthier and safer workplace for employees. According to a 2002 study by the Indoor Environment Department at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, approximately 23% of U.S. office workers experience two or more sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms—such as dizziness, nausea, and acute eye, nose, and throat irritation—in their workplaces annually. The same study found that the improved air quality generated by the use of green design, building materials, and technologies lowers SBS symptoms by 20% to 50%, while colds and influenza are reduced by 9% to 20% and allergies and asthma drop by 8% to 25%.
International Green
Many types of sustainable, nontoxic building materials are now readily available at reasonable prices. These include low- and zero-VOC paints, strawboard made from wheat (rather than formaldehyde-laced particle board), and linoleum flooring made from jute and linseed oil (rather than standard vinyl, which is packed with toxins). Materials like 100% recycled carpeting and heavy steel, acoustic ceiling tiles and furniture with significant recycled content, and soybean-based insulation often cost the same as or less than standard materials, and they have much less negative impact on the environment.
Rule 10: Construct Green
How you build is just as important as where and what you build. Achieving a superior indoor air quality, for example, starts during the construction process. By coordinating wet and dry activities, construction crews can avoid contaminating dry materials with moisture and making them breeding grounds for mold or bacteria. Mechanical ductwork can be protected from project site pollutants if it’s sealed in the factory before shipment and kept sealed until it’s installed.
Recycling construction waste is part of the green process that brings several benefits. First, the waste is not dumped in a landfill. Second, recycling costs are often much lower than landfill fees. Finally, by crushing the concrete and asphalt from a demolished facility and using it as structural fill for a new building on that site, a company can save hundreds of thousands of dollars because it doesn’t have to ship that waste off-site and buy gravel for structural fill. LEED gives points to every project that recycles at least 50% of its construction debris. Many companies do more. The Genzyme Center contractor, for example, recycled over 90% of the project’s construction waste.
Revamp and Refresh
As green goes mainstream, standard buildings will rapidly become obsolete and lose value. To avoid this problem, building owners should carry out green renovations. The LEED-CI program for commercial interiors offers guidelines to convert any standard workplace into a green building by generally following the same ten rules that apply to new construction, such as selecting alternative building materials. A green renovation can include everything from a new green roof to more efficient HVAC and lighting systems, enlarged existing windows, and low-VOC paints and flooring. The LEED-CI renovation of the 110,000-square-foot Puget Sound Energy corporate headquarters in downtown Bellevue, Washington, included more natural lighting and outdoor views, low-VOC interior finishes, lighting controls and sensors, and other energy efficient technologies that have improved worker satisfaction and saved the company $10,000 annually in energy costs. Citigroup is working with the USGBC to develop a streamlined process that will enable companies to earn LEED certification across entire real estate portfolios rather than applying for a LEED rating one building at a time.
The green future is here. Like the dramatic, occasionally unsettling, and ultimately beneficial transformations wrought by the introduction of electric lights, telephones, elevators, and air-conditioning, green building principles are changing how we construct and use our workplaces. Armed with the ten rules discussed above, corporations no longer have an excuse for eschewing sustainability—they have tools that are proven to lower overhead costs, improve productivity, and strengthen the bottom line.
| |
| | |
| | |
| |
Reprint Number R0606J |
|
A Few Good Ideas! That's all it takes!
In the last few months I have repeated over and over again the same message about the core theme of WUF3 – " Turning Ideas to Actions". Already in the first few days of the Forum, participants from many different cultures and circumstances have come together and are networking together to do just that, and they are beginning to change the world in the process.
The ideas don’t have to be grand programs with huge budgets to be considered. Sometimes, it’s the modest, down to earth suggestions borne of necessity that can bring together to most unlikely of partners in common cause to make a difference. A few recent examples come to mind.
In South Africa, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who is a speaker at WUF3, forged a formal partnership with the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), a Shack Dwellers International affiliate in South Africa. The partnership will be supported by roughly R230 million in subsidies to buy land and to build housing in communities whose daily lives are plagued by unprotected exposure to the elements, by insecurity and poverty.
As Madame Sisulu stated, it’s a new way of doing things and the partnership is built on an understanding that "each of us have a responsibility toward changing the fortunes of the poor.…The message is out, we are in this together."
Another example of an unlikely partnership is project mounted by the Mumbai Police Department to make at least 50,000 slum dwellers literate by August 2007. Seven slums areas have been targeted for a 10-week program that will give learners the option to choose one of nine languages.
What is even more significant about this initiative is that jobless computer-literate youths will be appointed as teachers. Illiterate slum-dwellers are often duped, as they have no option but to give their thumb impressions on documents they cannot read.
"The programme will empower the slum dwellers and help them to read documents, letters, prices on products and bus numbers. They will no longer have to depend on others to read for them," said police commissioner A.K. Roy, who conceived of the project.
Another emerging idea that will affect the well being of slum dwellers in India is the engagement of slums residents as Community Police Officers. One concept being considered is that slum dwellers themselves would select 10 community police officers from their own community (7 women and 3 men) and the police would assign 2 officers. Together they would sort out local disputes and act as investigators on felonies.
Community Policing and Outreach Programs are not new in India. What is different about this idea is that the slum dwellers themselves would choose who would exercise policing responsibilities in their neighbourhoods.
To the many millions living in the slums of India’s great cities, such partnerships will help immeasurably to improve safety and security. As was noted in the Background Paper distributed at WUF3, cities need to involve local groups, and in particular local youth, to design strategies to improve safety and security.
The ideas noted above are quite straight forward. What makes them special is that when different players - such as slum dwellers and government agencies - come together to turn the ideas into tangible actions, things begin to change.
This is what will make WUF3 a turning point in history in our combined efforts to make cities everywhere better places in which to live.
09:22 | Permalink
Comments
Dear Commissioner Kelly
Wow!
InternAfrica would like to express heartfelt gratitude to you, UN Habitat, Vancouver, WUF3 organisers, and IBM.
We could participate through the use of technology. It was strange living the week in Vancouver time, we all feel like we have jetlag in our own city. Clearly nothing like what was experienced at the WUF3! We were excited to participate and share the webcasts with those that don’t have access.
A good few new ideas were shared and we all learnt so much. Plus we have actionable ideas and planning guidelines.
Most importantly we are in this together.
InternAfrica has already worked through your suggestions and are pleased to report we are ‘steady on target’ with the steps laid out. This is inspirational, coupled with the energy and international availability of WUF3, we managed to network with and make new connections with many likeminded organizations.
Wow!
Habitat Jam WUF3 was a life saver for us.
We look forward to being at Nanjing in 2008 to learn and share more success stories.
Thank You
André du Plessis & InternAfricans
Posted by:
Andre du Plessis |
June 25, 2006 at 00:41
So, when the country embarks on its massive housing programme to build new houses, it should be done with an eye on sustainable development.
View the informal settlements of Cape Town.
 Open this Placemark
You will need to Install Google Earth to open this place mark.
Download Google Earth free here: http://earth.google.com/
(Please note this program is not suited for older computers)
Propaganja
Despite the rain, May Day saw about a 120 people make their way to the closed gates of parliament in Cape Town.
This was South Africa’s attempt at joining a 160 other cities in the Global Marijuana March. The numbers were telling of the obscurity of the dagga debate but did not nearly represent South Africa’s estimated one million smokers. The turn-up was nevertheless colourful: barefooted youth with little hope in their eyes rolled joints while soft-skinned beauties with dirty hair brandished “legalise it” posters. Rasta brothers with bling-bling outfits zealously shared their views with a journalist from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Numerous self-styled gurus clutched research documents on dagga as an alternative energy resource, dagga as medicine, and dagga for building houses. Joints, bottled water and ganja muffins were passed around while the police kept their pose.
Rightly so, says organizer of the march Andre du Plessis, because there is more to dagga than dope.
The emphasis on the narcotic qualities of a herb, that for centuries has been a matter-of-fact feature of life in southern Africa, has obscured its economic potential as a source of oil, paper, fabrics, the ingredient for soaps and wax and - mixed with lime - as a cheap, strong brick.
This potential, Du Plessis and others argue, highlights the need to think differently about a substance that is the subject chiefly of criminal investigation, while taking too much blame for social ills.
At the end of last year, 4 269 people were jailed for the possession of cannabis. Another 1 207 were incarcerated for trading or cultivating cannabis. Yet, the focus is on waging what is arguably an apparently wasteful war on an "enemy" that just won't go away. The sums involved are immense. Just last year, the SA Police Service's organised crime unit seized about 5 038.4kg of dagga from individuals, 99 939.3kg from traders and 754 913.3kg from plantations. This excludes cannabis confiscated by the uniformed police.
Cannabis, for the police, has the lure of a siren: parliament was told last year how Philippi residents, having failed to get attention from the Nyanga police to report a rape case, fabricated a "tip-off" about a stash of dagga. The police sent five cars.
But for all their bravado, the police seem to be fighting a losing battle. An estimated one million South Africans regularly break the law with impunity. And raids fail to reduce the demand. A decline in supply merely means consumers have to pay a bit more.
And that bit more doesn't go to the rural growers, whose livelihood often depends on their crop, but to drug lords. Some argue that more vigorous policing of the dagga trade, far from curbing its use, hikes profits and indirectly stimulates syndicate crime.
Prohibition has created a black market. Why, then, was cannabis made illegal in the first place?
Was it because it posed a health risk? Was it because it threatened the textile industry? Or because international conventions compelled South Africa to outlaw it?
The answer is complex, and in many ways obscure.
Assumption-buster Du Plessis, a systems engineer in the IT industry, has been pursuing the answer since 1998. He found that the initial reason for outlawing cannabis had nothing to do with the plant's narcotic qualities, but with the threat it posed to cotton and other industries. Numerous laws on cannabis in the 20th century were possibly racially discriminatory, and thus - or so Du Plessis thinks - unconstitutional. When master of apartheid propaganda Minister of Information Connie Mulder introduced the Dagga Act in 1971, he described dagga as a national emergency, arguing that white army conscripts would be demotivated, and social interaction between black and white youth would occur, if dagga was not criminalised.
Du Plessis also learnt that, if legalised, cannabis could take its place as a competitive product in the petrochemical, construction, paper, pulp and textile industries. Believing that cannabis could significantly contribute to reducing the housing backlog, and generate jobs, he set out to share his findings, to spread, as he puts it, "propaganja". He was not well received.
In 2001, Du Plessis approached the Innovation Fund with a proposal as thick as a Bible. In light of the housing shortfall, estimated to be 400 000 units per year, he pointed out that houses could be built using bricks made of shredded cannabis stalks - or hurd - and lime. The department of arts, culture, science and technology, which then managed the fund, thought he was crazy.
According to Du Plessis, it would be possible to build a hurd-brick house three times the size of a typical RDP house, for the same price. Besides being cheaper, bricks made from cannabis are, he argued, stronger, more sound-proof and a better thermal insulator than clay bricks.
Du Plessis says his vision of a socially-uplifting cannabis industry was seen as nothing but the pipedream of a dopehead.
Hoping to inspire dialogue around cannabis, Du Plessis led a similar march last year and handed over a petition of 800 signatures to public protector Gary Pienaar urging the government to rethink their “fundamentalist” approach to cannabis. He has yet not heard from the authorities. This year’s march, he says, is to remind government that the sharing of information with the people is an essential part of democracy.
Ten helium balloons filled with hundreds of cannabis seeds were released into the air. It was supposed to pop at altitude but with the help of the wind it ended up, in a very unspectacular manner, in parliament’s gardens. Du Plessis was not concerned. For him it was a sign that, one way or another, dagga will get governments attention.
However, the Eastern Cape department of agriculture has since 1996 been researching cannabis, in the form of hemp, as an alternative crop for fibre and oil production in an effort to uplift the rural poor.
Eastern Cape administration spokesman Manelisi Wolela says approval has been given for cultivating 2 000ha of hemp, and the Department of Trade and Industry has promised R55m for a hemp-processing plant.
The province's hemp specialist, Monde Fotana, hopes the research permit for the project will in time be extended to a commercial permit. The department is also working with Mercedes-Benz in the hope of supplying the car manufacturer with hemp fibre for door panels and biodegradable dashboards. Ultimately the department hopes to persuade the Department of Health to de-schedule "hemp" from the cannabis schedule of drugs and to introduce "industrial hemp regulations" as an amendment to the act.
Key laws are the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act of 1992 and the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act of 1965 which state that cannabis is illegal: “…the whole plant or any portion or product thereof, except dronabinol…"
Dronabinol is the pharmaceutical name for the active compound THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which has been patented and sold as Elevat and Marinol to combat nausea following chemotherapy and to boost appetite in anorexics and HIV-positive patients.
Given that THC is the only legal part of the plant, it is odd that it is the level of THC that is decisive in seeds being permitted for research. THC is indeed responsible for producing the "high" when cannabis is smoked, but the level of THC as a means of differentiating between cannabis grown for smoking (dagga) and cannabis grown for industrial purposes (hemp) is arbitrary and artificial.
The seeds approved by the Medicines Control Council for the Eastern Cape research project have a THC content of less than 1% and are of European origin. At 4 Euro per kilogram and 50kg per ha, this will cost the government over R3m a year, a price they say they will pay until farmers become established in the market, or until the Agriculture Research Council (ARC) develops a South African hybrid with a European level of THC.
Because of the commercial considerations, and the patent and intellectual property rights involved, the development of new varieties is a secretive business. Despite pressure from certain interest groups, including Du Plessis, the research council has not published any evidence of progress.
Fotana says such information is only shared with "responsible" farmers.
After applying for a research permit, the council supplied "responsible" farmer Russel de Beer with 750kg of European seeds which were planted in 2002 and 2003 on his farm in Northwest Province.
It was a failure.
De Beer says that "the ARC throws stars in your eyes". He simulated rural farming and did everything by hand but found that, because the European cannabis needed to be fertilised and irrigated, it would not be commercially viable for the rural farmers.
And as the European seeds were acclimatised to 18 hours of sunlight in summer and the South African sun provided only 13, De Beer found they delivered poor-quality hemp.
Local varieties, producing more THC because of the shorter exposure to daylight, are more resistant to boll-worms and stink-bugs, and can be harvested twice a year. De Beer believes the best seed for cultivating hemp should have a South African origin.
In the hope of "helping the rural farmer to have real power in the market", he began researching the creation of a native hybrid, which could meet industrial demands. But he ran into trouble: unexpectedly, his permit failed to come through, and he was arrested, appearing in court on April 19.
Samples of De Beer's "suspicious" crop are being analysed at a forensic sciences laboratory to determine the level of THC, and thus deduce his possible intent in growing it. The ARC is to give evidence in the case at the Britz Magistrate's Court on June 10.
Meanwhile the exploitation of this valuable and prevalent shrub remains the monopoly of drug lords.
Many argue that more effective monitoring and control of any negative effects of dagga abuse will be possible if it is legalised, partly by destroying the allure of doing something forbidden. And, it will free cannabis to take its place in the economy as a useful, versatile and profitable commodity.
I originally submitted this story to the now defunct national daily This Day. Instead they published a misconceived letter from Lusaka wherein This Day journalist Samu Zulu showcased his ignorance: Marijuana can be chewed, Bob Marley died prematurely because he smoked marijuana, and marijuana “takes ardent smokers to heaven and back in a fraction of a second before it finally leaves them hallucinating and freaked out.”
To add injury to insult, front page news had financial journalist Heather Formby asking (in regard to the R400 million Nedcor paid for law firm Nathan & Friedland): “was someone smoking dagga?”
The day before the story was due to appear in The Star Brenda Fassie was admitted to hospital. It was not impossible to surmise that the editorial decision was that one cannot have a story about a pop star in hospital for a crack overdose and a story about another drug on the same day. The page where my story was due was filled with a short archival wire-story about women boxers in Brazil, and two mediocre photos blown-up out of proportion.
The story was eventually published in The Star, the Pretoria News, the Daily News, and the Diamond Field’s Advertiser, but I was never paid for it.
|
|
