Siziba Thando
Health and environment reporter
With the world “on fire” and Zimbabwe facing intensifying climate crises, a leading expert has presented a stark but hopeful blueprint, revealing that the nation’s built environment is both a major part of the problem and the essential foundation for a climate-ready future.
Dr. Mike Eric Juru, Chairperson of the Green Building Council of Zimbabwe, delivered the compelling assessment in a presentation titled “The Green Blueprint: Engineering a Climate Ready Zimbabwe.”
He laid bare the devastating cost of climate change on the country before pinpointing the construction industry as the single largest source of carbon emissions.
Dr. Juru contextualized the urgency with grim statistics: the loss of 341 lives and over $1 billion in damages from Cyclone Idai in 2019, six out of the last ten rainy seasons being below normal, and recurring droughts plaguing regions like Matabeleland, Masvingo, and Manicaland.
He further highlighted urban challenges, including Harare’s water losses of 40-60% due to leakage and a steady rise in average daily temperatures of 0.4–0.6°C per decade.
“The world is on fire and Zimbabwe is not excluded,” Dr. Juru stated, underscoring the immediate need for action.
The presentation revealed a critical data point: the built environment is responsible for a staggering 39% of the nation’s total CO₂ emissions, dwarfing other sectors like forestry (23%) and transport (16%).
Dr. Juru broke down these emissions into two categories: Operational Emissions (72%), which come from the energy used to heat, cool, and power buildings, and Embodied Emissions (28%), which are locked in from the manufacturing of construction materials and the building process itself.
“This is not just about using solar panels on a finished building, It’s about rethinking the entire lifecycle, from the quarry to the demolition site.” He futher explained.
The expert framed this challenge as a generational opportunity, noting that “75% of the infrastructure required in 2050 is still to be built,” with the majority (75%) being new development and the remainder (25%) involving retrofitting existing structures.
To harness this opportunity, Dr. Juru proposed a comprehensive policy and regulatory framework built on four pillars: Energy, Water, Waste, and Materials, applied across the stages of Planning, Designing, Development, and Operation.
Dr. Juru concluded with a powerful assertion: “When policy is intentionally designed, sustainability becomes inevitable.”
The success of this blueprint, he emphasized, hinges on capacity building—equipping the nation with the knowledge, skills, standards, and performance metrics to build sustainably. The message was clear: Zimbabwe’s path to climate resilience must be constructed, literally, from the ground up.
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