Assessment of Awareness level of Green Building Concepts in Kigali commercial property development

Abstract

The construction industry is one of the main energy consumers and emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG), generating about 23-40% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, the construction industry has performed poorly in terms of environmental protection. The construction sector in developing countries is characterized by excessive resource consumption, resulting in habitat loss, land degradation, air and water pollution. This has exacerbated the global warming crisis and led to the development of green buildings. The objectives of this study is to analyze the level of awareness of green building concepts by building construction players between 2013 and 2018 in Kigali, to examine to which extent the green building concepts have been adopted in the Kigali City by the construction industry and to identify the factor impeding the implementation of green building concepts with the aim of identifying appropriate strategies for implementing these concepts. The study was conducted using a questionnaire, interviews, and observations for data collection. It also reviewed secondary data from existing documents, including journals and books. The study findings showed that 90.2% of the players in construction industry participated in the recently constructed commercial buildings in Kigali and were aware of the green building concepts. However, only 17.9% of the concepts were incorporated into the building. By using the frequency rating scale, it appeared that the lack of enforcement of sustainable building policies, lack of education on green building concepts, lack of empowerment of stakeholders and lack of incentives from the government are the biggest obstacles practitioners face in the adopting of the concepts. Some strategies were recommended to promote uptake of the concepts include the development of sustainability checklist by local authority, availability of financial incentives like green loans, recognizing and certifying sustainable buildings as well as improved enforcement by local governments. The study concluded that administrative management and policies are needed to implement sustainable building concepts as well as introduction of incentives. Keywords: Green buildings, Green Building concepts, Built environment and Sustainability