Green is affordable: environmentally sustainable housing for all

Over the next 20 years, more than half of new buildings expected in 2060 will be constructed, most of them in rapidly growing cities in developing countries. In order to ensure that the housing stock of our cities -and the surrounding environment- will be sustainable for future generations, it is vital that sustainability concerns are made central to housing policies and housing sector practitioners.

Current national housing policies place great emphasis on affordability and social inclusiveness of proposed housing schemes. While this addresses two of the pillars of sustainability, all too often the need for environmentally sustainable housing is neglected. This is even though 19% of global energy consumption occurs at the household level, and 40% of global energy use is by the overall building stock. It is clear from these figures that reaffirming the role of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in our housing stock has the potential to have a transformative effect on our environment.

UN-Habitat has been working on environmentally sustainable housing through the 10 Year Framework of Programmes (10YFP) for which UN Environment is the Secretariat. The Mas-Ship programme on mainstreaming sustainable social housing in India, highlighting the potential of alternative building methods and the SHERPA self-assessment tool which allows developers to carry out a low-cost assessment of the sustainability of their housing provision are both projects under the 10YFP.

UN Environment has built on its Sustainable Social Housing (SUSHI) Programme which ended in 2014. Efforts range from macro to micro level – looking at bringing countries, the private sector, and international organizations together under the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (https://globalabc.org/) and making technology accessible to communities such as the District Energy in Cities Initiative (http://www.districtenergyinitiative.org/).

This event will demonstrate lessons learned from both agencies experiences and explore a joint way forward, bringing in key partners in the discussion.