The Green Building Council of Zimbabwe (GBCZ) is in the process of creating a rating and building certification tool with a homegrown touch that will define green buildings in the country.
The tool will play a critical role in providing a framework and process for assessing and certifying buildings based on their environmental, social, and economic performance in the face of climate change.
Speaking at the recent 2025 Zimbabwe Climate Change Sustainability Week and Green Business Expo in Bulawayo, GBCZ chairperson, Dr Mike Juru, said buildings account for 40 percent of carbon emissions.
“Buildings are an important factor in people’s lives and yet they account for 40 percent of carbon emissions, which are a contributor to climate change. UN Habitat did their research and opined that by the year 2050, 75 percent of the buildings that will be there are not yet built.
“The buildings we currently have only constitute 25 percent of the buildings that will be there by 2050. To support that statement, the population of Zimbabwe is currently at 16 million and the population median is 19, which means in 25 years’ time, 8 million of the population will be in the housing market looking for their own accommodation,” he said.
“As the GBCZ, we are working on our own rating and building certification tool, something that is homegrown. Certainly, the climate in Australia is not the same as in Zimbabwe. So, we are working to have our own rating and certification tool that will be used to define green buildings in Zimbabwe.”
He said a lot of construction was ongoing and would continue to happen out of need and necessity for human survival, while they were promoting buildings that by design, construction and operation minimise their impact on the environment.
Dr Juru, a real estate practitioner with over 25 years of experience and chief executive officer (CEO) of Integrated Properties, an ISO-certified real estate firm, emphasised the need for buildings to reduce emissions to deal head-on with issues of climate change.
“Green buildings offer energy and resource efficiency which is what is required to reduce the emissions. They are also key to water conservation, as you may have heard that the next world wars will be about fresh water supply.
“We are fast running out of fresh water and for as long as we do not build green buildings, it means we will continue wasting water and we will perish as human kind,” he added.
“Green buildings reduce the waste that comes out of buildings because waste fills up the landfills and takes up valuable space that we could use for agriculture. We need to embrace green building standards to address climate change.”
He said they were also working with the Parliament of Zimbabwe to push for legislation to promote and encourage green building standards to be enacted in Zimbabwe.
Dr Juru said this would help the country to address climate change and ensure they have a great story to tell their grandchildren in 2050—that they created a country that is sustainable for them.
He said: “The GBCZ is part of the World Green Building Council, which has member councils in over 70 countries worldwide. We are about awareness and training, as well as the certification of buildings. How do we certify that the buildings are green? There is a process that has to be followed.”
Dr Juru said not all buildings would be green, but they had to be designed to meet the criteria, and they were developing the standards, while the certification of buildings was most important.
He said armed with the right certification it would mean Zimbabwe’s green buildings would address climate change and would have standards that could be followed.
“Green buildings will create a sustainable built environment, which is needed to address climate change. They will create a green economy, which cannot be achieved if we do not have green building standards to create green jobs.”
As Zimbabwe this year in May became the first country to launch a national carbon registry, Dr Juru said carbon credits could only come when there was a green building rating tool that would ensure buildings were certified sustainable in their operations.
The Zimbabwe Carbon Registry (ZCR) is a secure, transparent system for recording and tracking carbon credits, while it marks a major step toward operationalising Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which enables countries to cooperate on cutting emissions through international carbon markets and non-market mechanisms.—Zimpapers Business Hub
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