Business Times

Planning buildings with concern for the environment, people’s health

By Quintus Perera

The Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB) is to promote “Green Construction” that would lead to efficient use of energy, water and other resources. CIOB was established in 1961 and according to its President, Dr Rohan Karunaratne it was dormant for the last 15 years but revived last year to fulfill its objective of making the contractor, a builder and to promote Green Construction.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo last week, Dr Karunaratne said that the contractor works with a number of professionals in the construction sphere and thus for him to become a builder the contractor should also have a fair knowledge in all these fields. In this regard he said that they will provide professional assistance to their members.

He said that adoption of sustainable/green concepts being expensive is a myth and said that if the construction is carried out within these concepts they would reduce energy by 30 – 50%, water use by 20 – 30%, Co2 emission by 33% - 39% and solid waste by 70%.

He said that by adopting the green concepts costs will drastically reduce when the complete building life cycle costs are considered. Though there is a possibility of initial costs of construction going up, the operational and maintenance costs would be lower, resulting in a low building life style costs. With the adoption of newer technologies and processes, world-wide figures indicate that the payback period for such an incremental initial construction costs are gradually coming down.

Awanthi Jayatilleke, an enviromentalist, said that there are rules and regulations to conform to environmental norms but these are limited to only the approval process. Very little implementation and monitoring results in the failure to obtain the envisaged benefits.

He said that construction and buildings are important as a new-born would spend 78% of his/her life in that building and it becomes part and parcel of the person’s life. If the building is a sick one the person or the persons living in that building would invariably become sick and the sickness could not only be physical but also mental, he said.

The building should be a stable and a solid structure to show the character of the society or the person. He said that buildings and road should not be constructed just for the sake of constructing them as there are instances that in no time roads are getting washed off and buildings collapsing. He said that collapsing buildings though not common in Sri Lanka, is common in South-East Asia.

He said that people spent their life time savings and income to construct houses and in some cases it is their only lifetime investment. Therefore regulations should be in place to ensure these buildings to be sustainable, environmentally friendly and human friendly.

Jayakish Tudawe, Vice President, CIOB said that CIOB would provide sufficient training to the builder for him to be adequately conversant with the modern trends in the construction process. In this regard he pointed out that English and IT knowledge is essential to find out the newest technology adopted in this field. He said with a fair knowledge of English they could access the Internet to obtain sufficient knowledge.

Environmentalist Tissa Meepe made a presentation on Construction and Maintaining Ecological Balance with Environment.

Top to the page  |  E-mail  |  views[1]
SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
 
Other Business Times Articles
T-bills, not cash for acquired lands
Mihin Air settles 60% of debt, monthly rev. $2 mln
Stock market learns to cope with price curbs
IMF team assessing Lankan economy
SEC seeks assistance of foreign regulators on ERI
Shangri-La to invest in 5-star hotel in Colombo
Comment - Waiting for budget 2011
Feature - tomorrowFITNESS: What is in store for us
Feature - Endowment envy: Investing to donate?
Feature - GSP+ loss will not be so hard: Fitch Ratings
Etisalat reaches magical figure of 3 mln customers, heads for 4 mln
SLT conducts Sinharaja workshop for Mahajana College, Jaffna
Pensioners: Grateful to be paid in Ceylinco saga
Banks reduce loan provisions to boost results
As WP controls national GDP, call for balanced growth across SL
Thonda commends Nestlé’s continued commitment to local dairy industry
World Bank country director ends term
Sampath aims to reach the top in credit cards
CB rejects accusations that it has no authority to invest EPF funds
Acme seeks Rs 250 mln funds for expansion
ADB Vice President visiting Sri Lanka
Child-resistance bottle cap being introduced by makers of Panadol
Kelaniya University bags gold in MTI start-up venture contest
Sri Lankan chicks going to Nepal
Public dialogue on Knowledge-based Development in Jaffna
CPC owes Rs 18.5 billion in oil hedging dues, to Standard Chartered Bank
Mahindra looking at opening a vehicle assembly plant here
SriLankan Airlines' first Trainee Technicians under European certification
Sri Lanka Telecom makes profits in June 2010 quarter
Business Leaders' classroom exercise for small entrepreneurs
Sri Lanka to reduce e-waste with private sector assistance
Planning buildings with concern for the environment, people’s health
Cargills moves into new headoffice from ‘grand old building’ in Fort
Asgiriya firm becomes sole agents for FENNER
Galpaditenne Tea Factory looking at 4 mln kilos of black tea output
Strike-hit Lanka Walltile threatens to sack contract workers
LOLC to spend nearly US$30mln in refurbishing
Japanese Prof. on lecture tour
Australian and Sri Lankan expatriates visit Sri Lanka
Tourism booms as room strength and hotels grow
Lanka Ashok Leyland partners SMB Leasing to serve North-East
Two new directors at Kotmale Holdings
DFCC Vardhana Bank offers housing, foreign education loans
Tropical Villas sold in larger tourism interest: Jetwing
‘Clean Power’ a new energy saving device for vehicles
Kiwi rugby stars teach safety to Air New Zealand fliers
Sparklink achieves 31 years of service excellence
JKH leads, Carsons No. 4 in the Colombo bourse
DHL launches new direct LCL services from South Asia Pacific to Slovenia
Softlogic slated to buy more into Capital Reach tomorrow
Shares inflated? Invest in the ‘real economy’
Stock market regulator plans to increase liquidity in Colombo bourse
Drop in interest rates not drawing investors to the markets
Some investors urge continuation of price curbs
EPF, Bank of Ceylon, NSB big stakes in Lighthouse Hotels Ltd
SEC's move to discourage quick buck gambler attitude comes under fire by players

 

 
Reproduction of articles permitted when used without any alterations to contents and a link to the source page.
© Copyright 2010 | Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka. All Rights Reserved.| Site best viewed in IE ver 6.0 @ 1024 x 768 resolution