Speech of Honourable Devanand Virahsawmy
Minister of Environment & Sustainable Development
Workshop on
LEED TECHNICAL REVIEW WORKSHOP
21 July 2010
La Cannelle , Domaine Les Pailles
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Mrs Mary Jo Wills ,
US Ambassador
Mrs Joya Bhandari,
Organizer of this Workshop
Resource Persons
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning.
I am honoured to address you this morning on the occasion of the
Integrative Design and LEED Technical Workshop organized by Mrs Joya
Bhandari in collaboration with the US Green Building Council. It is indeed a
great pleasure to have among us world class experts in the field of
sustainable development from the United States and more specifically on
the LEED Rating system which is an internationally recognized green
building certification system.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Sustainability is one of the main challenges of the new millennium. Both the
ecological and energy crises with the backdrop of climate change are
prompting governments across the world to integrate environmental
considerations into their decision- making processes in a horizontal
manner.
In recent years, we have witnessed various laudable initiatives towards
sustainable buildings in Mauritius. There is undeniably a move towards
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more innovation in sustainable building design, construction and operation.
Hence, the need to further enhance this momentum and sensitize local
building professionals about integrative design principles and the LEED
System, which measures and guides sustainable development.
Ladies and gentlemen
Buildings create the framework for our daily life, which starts with the
formulation of a need to construct, the selection of a site, preliminary
planning, construction of the building, its use, operation, maintenance and
finally its demolition.
In Mauritius, built–up areas are estimated to cover more than 25% of the
land in Mauritius and this percentage is increasing every year. Between 7,
000 and 10, 000 building permits are granted each year for residential and
non- residential development purposes.The increasing importance of new
investment sectors of activity such as business activities, intelligent parks,
Integrated Resort Schemes (IRS) development are bringing profound
modifications to our land regime, raising issues of long term environmental
sustainability.
Achieving sustainability of the built environment is not only a local but a
global challenge. In fact, buildings are the single largest contributor to
global warming and they account for approximately one third of all energy
related greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, which is expected to further
increase in the future. Innovations in building design, construction and
operation therefore play a key role in combating and addressing climate
change.
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As a responsible Government, we recognize the urgency to reconcile
current boom in the construction industry with its sustainability.
Ladies and gentlemen
A National Programme on Sustainable Consumption and Production for
Mauritius is actually under implementation. In this context, my Ministry will
soon be launching a policy and guidelines on sustainable buildings and
construction, a building rating system as well as training programs for
industry professionals on sustainable buildings. The project is being funded
by the European Union and will start in January 2011. It will be a very
intensive project with lots of consultation from relevant stakeholders –
government, private, parastatal , academia , experts , etc.
The policy on sustainable buildings will comprise mainly of national targets
in terms of sustainability for different categories of buildings , namely
residential , commercial , industrial , hotels , public buildings , low- income
housing , hospitals , schools , etc.
The guidelines for sustainable design and construction will serve as a
benchmark and are intended to implement integrated principles for the
sustainable planning, construction, operation, maintenance and use of the
buildings.
The guidelines will then be translated into a building rating system which
will comprise a set of environmental qualifying criteria for sustainable
buildings. The project will recommend an appropriate institutional set up for
the award of the rating system and also a detailed mechanism for
implementation and monitoring of the building rating system.
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This project will also complement the one implemented by the Ministry of
Energy and Public Utilities on “Removal of barriers to Energy Efficiency and
Energy Conservation in Buildings”. The outputs from both projects will
constitute new Building Regulations and Codes, which so far did not
consider the sustainability aspect of buildings.
Ladies and gentlemen,
To-day’s initiative of bringing together, world class experts from the US
Green Building Council in order to sensitize on the LEED specification in
buildings is indeed highly commendable. The networking that you will
establish will no doubt boost up your knowledge in the LEED Rating system
and this will definitely promote our capacity to innovate. We need to tap all
the opportunities on our route to a low carbon economy.
It is also very encouraging to note that our efforts to protect environment
have also been acknowledged at international level. Mauritius ranked 6th on
Environmental Performance Index (EPI) at the World Economic Forum for
2010. This recognition bears testimony of the collaborative efforts of all
stakeholders to sustainably manage our environmental assets. This
recognition compels us to do even better.
However, to ensure
sustainability in our environmental performance we need to forge ahead as
a single entity. Government is fully committed to ensuring environmental
sustainability to the population but the collaborative efforts of all the
partners and especially the private sector would be paramount in this
quest. Each sphere of society has therefore an important role to play and
should act responsibly towards the environment.
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
There is no universal definition of sustainable building and construction. It
is constantly evolving as our understanding of the complexity of the issues
is increasing. It is therefore a learning process and you are all here to learn
from each other.
It is my conviction and trust that this workshop will be a major forum of
inspiration for Architects, Building Designers, Policy Makers, Engineers and
construction companies to engage in eco-building design, construction and
operation and try to make a difference in the built environment. No doubt,
we need your visionary and collaboration to build a sustainable society for
us and for our children.
With these words, I wish you fruitful interactions.
Thank you for your attention.
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