Rationale for Promoting Resource-efficient Housing for ... 3 - Natalja W.pdf · Urban & Peri-urban Low Income Groups in Asia & the Pacific Stream 2: Affordable & Resource-Efficient

Rationale for Promoting

Resource-efficient Housing for Urban & Peri-urban Low Income Groups

in Asia & the Pacific

Stream 2: Affordable & Resource-Efficient Housing Concepts

ESCAP Knowledge Dissemination Workshop on Sustainable Energy Options June 24-26, Bangkok, Thailand , Novotel Pleonchit Hotel

Natalja WehmerSustainable Urban Development Section

Context & Scope of Urban Work Stream in DA Project

Under joint Hilti Foundation – ESCAP project “Implementing Alternative Building Technologies for Housing the Poor” have holistic implementation approach, looking at entry point of housing across 5 dimensions

Under this DA project had opportunity to zoom into one sub-set: “Environmental Impacts” (but look beyond HF technologies):

1) Resource & energy efficiency + minimization of pollution & waste, including GHGs

2) Disaster & climate change resilience

Comfort & healthHF/UN:

Implementing Alternative Building

Technologies for Housing the Poor

DA: Resource & Energy

Efficient Urban Development

Green & affordable housing

Aim & Structure of the Presentation

Aim Provide a storyline for why part of a project on

energy sustainability would focus on cities & affordable, green housing

Structure Where are we now? Where do we want to be? How do we get there?





“Our struggle for global sustainability will be won or lost in cities” UN Secretary General, 2012






Sustainable housing offers a great spectrum of opportunities to promoteeconomic development, environmental stewardship, quality of life andsocial equality, while mitigating the interlinked challenges of populationgrowth, urbanisation, slums, poverty, climate change, lack of access tosustainable energy, and economic uncertainty

UN-HABITAT, 2012






Sustainable housing offers a great spectrum of opportunities to promoteeconomic development, environmental stewardship, quality of life andsocial equality, while mitigating the interlinked challenges of populationgrowth, urbanisation, slums, poverty, climate change, lack of access tosustainable energy, and economic uncertainty

UN-HABITAT, 2012

Not only does housing production & utilisation use energy (which is what this presentation mainly focuses on), but housing & energy provision as interlinked basic needs allow for: Innovative synergetic solutions during planning & construction Cross stimulation in delivery, enterprise & partnership

models

1) Where Are We Now?

Transition rural to urban condition consists of population growth & density, spatial

expansion & physical build up, economic development

Opportunity: since much yet to be built, can try & minimize lock into resource &

energy intensive infrastructure & housing

For Energy Affordability & Sustainability: Why Focus on Cities & Low-cost Housing?

Urbanization in Asia-Pacific: Unprecedented Scale & Scope

Now 1.9 billion people urban in A-P – that is 46 % of

total population

– 1/3 live in slums & informal settlements

Between 1980 - 2013 urban population increases by

over 1 billion (more than rest of world combined)

By 2020 will be 2.2 billion or 52% of total population

– an additional 300 million in just 6 years

– majority of increase among lower income groups

Challenge: governments & other stakeholder

struggle to provide needed infrastructure, housing &

employment

Asia-Pacific home to 13 of world’s 23 megacities, yet growth in smaller cities fastest - holding 60% of urban population

Growth rates highest in peri-urban areas

Dichotomy rural urban increasingly meaningless - sprawl, desa-kotadevelopment, urban regions & corridors of 10th of mills people

Source: http://www.newgeography.com/content/002198-the-evolving-urban-form-manila

Little comprehensive planning (under-regulated/ informal): high & low end externalise environ. risks & social needs

Empirical link: richest countries most urbanized & poorest least but latter now urbanizing fastest

Source: Taubenboeck & Esch, 2011, http://www.earthzine.org/2011/07/20/remote-sensing-–-an-effective-data-source-for-urban-monitoring/

Metro Manila


Urbanization in Asia-Pacific: Challenging Patterns

For households:

Housing is a basic & fundamentalright: shelter, safety & privacy

Formal housing facilitates accessinfrastructure (electricity, cleanwater, sanitation) & services(subsidized education, health care), citizen registration & voting rights

Formal address facilitates accessing credit (collateral) & finding jobs

Parts of house itself often used for income generation (esp. by poor),e.g. small manufacturing workshops, services like hair salons, shops orroom rental


Importance of “Adequate” Housing

For economy:

Economic multiplier effect &employment generator –residential construction 7-10% oflabour force in developingcountries (UN Habitat 2012)

Green buildings - new jobs: R&D, manufacturing, design, certification, maintenance, installation, marketing

Less tangible benefits of adequate housing: better productivity of workers due to improved living & working environment


Importance of “Adequate” Housing


Slums & Urban Housing Backlog

Unless reconstruction after major disasters, MOST HOUSING NEED ARE IN CITIES & AMONG LOW INCOME GROUPS

SLUMS are a spatial expression of poverty & exclusion:

1/3 (over 570 mill) of AP’s urban population live in slums trend: % going down, but absolute numbers going up

If at least 2 conditions present, UN defines settlement as slum: 1) insecurity of tenure, 2) inadequate access to safe water, 3) inadequate access to sanitation, 4) poor structural quality, 5) overcrowding

Not all poor live in slums & not all who live in slums are poor

Housing in formal market too expensive & not enough - high demand for urban land (sky-rocketing prices); lack of financing mechanisms for informal settlers/ workers

Advantages to living in an inner-city slum: location near employment opportunities, markets, education or health facilities etc.; social & economic networks


Urban Metabolism: “Ecological Footprints”

Definition: Area of land & aquatic ecosystems required to produce the resources for & to assimilate the wastes of a defined population

Ecological footprints of some A-P cities 3-5 times higher than global urban average

Cities use 67% of all energy, emit 71% of all GHGs, generate 300 mill tones of waste/ year & use & pollute water on unprecedented scale

Resource Hunger: Industrialization & conspicuous consumption

Depletion & degradation (of non-renewable & renewable resources)

Cities mainly depend on import of finite material resources from outside their boundaries

Pollution & Waste: End-of-the-line rather than circular production & consumption processes as elsewhere, but same time inadequate basic infrastructure & services provision

Estimated CO2 Emissions/ Person/ Year for Selected Cities, 2008-9

City CO2 (tones/ person)

Bangkok 6.7

Beijing 8.2

Delhi 1.1

Manila 1.6

Singapore 7.4

Tokyo 4.8

Bangkok

New York

Source: UN Habitat (2012) Sustainable Urban Energy: A Sourcebook for Asia


Urban Metabolism: Global Supply Chains & “Petropolis”

Along with globalisation, Asian citiesshifted from “agro-cities” (receivingmost resources from immediate hinterland& returning mainly organic waste back toagriculture) to “petro-cities” (soconnected to global markets that mostproducts imported from afar – withpetroleum - breaking local linkages)

Time to rethink local supply opps?

For much of developing Asia-Pacific,prevailing economic growth model oneof risk externalization & costminimization by the developed world andown elites: Low social protection & safety standards

Little “trickle-down”, rising inequality

Disregard for environment

Time to implement triple bottom line development?


Trend: Material Consumption Going Up, esp. for Construction

Per capita material use in Asia-Pacific catching up fast – now 86% of rest of the world

Construction minerals & metals extraction up due to large investments in cities & infrastructure

Efficiency of material use is declining with increasing population numbers, affluence, & changing technologies

Affluence now biggest driver for growing extractive pressures

1970 2005

Construction mineralsconsumption in A-P

Worldwide

Sources: APEC (2012) Peer Review on Energy Efficiency in the Philippineshttp://www.mitigationpartnership.net/sustainable-buildings-and-climate-initiativeWEC-ADEME, 2010; GBPN, 2012, UNEP (2011) Green Economy Report

But building sector great potential for significant GHG emission reductions in developed & developing countries

Energy consumption in buildings can be reduced by 30 to 80% using proven & commercially available technologies (Western data)


Trend: Material & Energy Consumption in Construction & Housing

Building sector can be called industry of “thirds” - worldwide, over:

1/3 of all CO2 emissions come from building construction & operations,

1/3 of all energy & material resources is used to build & operate buildings,

1/3 of total waste results from construction construction & demolition activities. (UNEP, 2011)

IEA projects global building energy consumption to grow by 30% by 2030

Most of that in developing countries where urban housing stock likely to double by 2030

In India alone, 75% of buildings expected to exist in 2030 have yet to be built

Residential Energy Use in Philippines

2) Where Do We Want to Be?

Conserve resource (only use what you need)

Use all resources efficiently

Recycle all waste, build from recycled materials & build from recyclable materials

Maximize use of (local) renewable resources

Contribute to restoring the natural habitat

Healthy homes

Indian Green Building Council:

“A green building is one which uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building.”


Definitions of Green Buildings/ Green Housing

Affordable, green & resilient housing technologies & building designs (also: “building with the climate for indoor comfort & health”)

Affordable, green & resilient housing-related infrastructure, fixtures & appliances (electricity, water, cooking fuel, energy-efficient light-bulbs & stoves, RWH, bio gas, solar heaters etc.)

Source: http://www.edito-project.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/sust-site-300x205.jpg


Our Definition of Affordable, Green & Resilient Housing

To us affordable & sustainable housing is a holistic concept going beyond the mere physical structure – catalyzing community development, it includes:

Green & disaster-resilient site development, including basic infrastructure like drainage, roads, SWM, WatSan (& affordable & convenient transport links to employment & services)

All decisions about above & implementation ideally should be reached through demand-driven, participatory approaches that empower urban poor communities & their support organizations


Approaches to Low-income Housing Provision that Work

CODI

ACHR

SDI

Waste Concern

OPP

SAIBAN

HPFPI

Lumanti


Approaches to Low-income Housing Provision that Work

Demand-driven, real partnerships with urban poor communities at the center

Holistic, empowering

Poor get what they need in a way that works for them & the city

Use community savings as organizing principle

More cost-effective – revolving funds, co-financing, local sourcing of materials & labour, less bureaucracy, learning by snowball system – people teaching each other

Global/ Asia-wide networks & multi-stakeholder outreach

Exchanging knowledge & encouragement – f.ex. on incorporating concepts of resilience

Engaging with governments, academia, business to adapt approaches to different country and city contexts & bring them to scale

Waste Scenario

Maintenance

Utilization

Construction

Production

Raw Material

For Energy Sustainability: Why Focus on Cities & Low-cost Housing?

Life Cycle Analysis/ Assessment

LCA - method to measure ecological performance of products & services

Principally summarizes all mass and energy flows throughout a life cycle

Allows to identify areas for improvement of one product or comparison of products with same function

Rather than just assuming that certain practices better for environment, LCA provides scientific evaluation of actual performance (with sometimes surprising results)


LCA Flow for Our Project Housing


LCA Project vs. Conventional Low-cost Housing

Impact of project house is factor 5 less than that of a comparable conventional house from CHBs

50% of that impact is due to galvanized steel roofing, which aim to substitute in future for greener & better performing option

Cradle to Construction Source: Hilti Foundation, Salzer (2013)


LCA – Western Middle Class vs. Asian Low-income

Ours 1st LCA of actual low-income housing in the Philippines/ dev. country

Many LCAs for Western buildings (mainly commercial & public/ also residential)

Western LCA’s: 80% energy consumed in “use-phase” / 20% embedded energy (cradle – construction / demolition) -so big focus on appliances

Low-income housing in tropical developing countries very different – HHs consume much less energy during “use-phase” (but not much data for this - yet)

Huge number of low-income housing needed, so embedded energy of housing materials much more important

Perception now that green buildings for high-end only – but serious exploration of alternative technologies shows affordability is possible

Also wrong to assume that low-income HHs (esp. in informal settlements) cannot pay for services – as often pay more for electricity, water, transport…

3) How Do We Get There?


Enabling Housing – So Much More Than the House

For sustainable supply of & demand for low-income housing various directly related aspects need to be adequately covered

Most aspects cannot be taken for granted in developing country context or are qualitatively/ quantitatively underdeveloped

Idea is to link up with existing enablers or catalyze development/ strengthening new ones, including through policy advocacy & capacity development



Upstream Value Chain base Downstream

Value Chain

Core Business

Extended Enterprise

Interdependent Aspects

Wider Context

Controlling

Shaping

Influencing

Adjusting to



3) Socio-technical Regimes: Complex configurations of technologies, rules, practices & norms, actors that constitutesocial, institutional & technological fabric of economic activity.

Existing socio-technical regimes characterised by path dependence, inertia & lock-in

4) Landscape: forming broader context in which regimes constituted, exogenous environment that usually changes slowly but has deep structuring influence on niches & regimes, & on their interaction

Cultural norms, broad political coalitions, long-term economic developments, globalization, resource pressures, demography, climate change impacts, sizable disasters etc.

1) Sustainability Experiments: planned initiatives with highly-novel socio-technical configuration leading to substantial sustainability gains

2) Niche: Locus where novelties emerge - ‘incubation rooms’, shielding new technologies from mainstream market

4)

1) 2)

3)



Sustainability experiment turns into viable alternative niche, “wedging” itself into space of incumbent regime

Alternative niches mature & become common –incumbent regime no longer dominant

Alternative niches have formed into a new regime that becomes “the only game in town”

Related sustainability experiments & networks link up &start forming niche

Step by step/ incrementally & pragmatically with persistence, patience & passion

Engage across different levels (local to regional – incl. S-S coop) & different stakeholders (government, professionals & academia, NGOs & CBOs, business…)

Trying to create a movement of like-minded, complementary partners

Create a strong scientific & empirical evidence base & providing proof of concept (learning by doing)

Invest in advocacy & capacity development


So How Do We Get There?

Additional Slides

Humanity now an urban species – globally over half live in cities

Asia-Pacific “catching up” fast – will have 50% in 2020 & by 2050 over 3 billion people or 65% in cities

85% of growth in building energy use up to 2050 will be in urban areas, 70% of this in developing countries (Uerge-Vorsatz, 2012)

Why Focus on Cities & Low-cost Housing?

Eco-system Layer

Factors/ Issues Linked Actors (Partners & Customers) Domain of

Core Business • Production of modular housing components & complete hosing designs

• Potentially/ partially construction of housing systems

• Institutional customers (government,civil society, potentially business) & individual customers/ end-users

• Actors along value chain

• Base commercial (country level & HQ)

Extended Enterprise

• Downstream & upstream value chain (set-up & quality control)

• Potentially/ partially activities linked to land & housing finance, site assessment & development etc.

• Cooperatives, social enterprises, businesses along value chain

• Intermediary partners (government, business, civil society) assisting in development of such actors & value chains

• Base Networks to catalyze/ strengthen

• Base commercial if existent or once viable

Interdependent Aspects

• Prerequisites for effective supply & demand of ‘base’ products (land & housing finance,enabling regulations & institutions etc.)

• Livable communities (safe & secure land, sustainable livelihoods, adequate basicinfrastructure & services, social cohesion & voice in local decision-making)

• National & local level government entities, private sector or civil society organizations specialized in providing mentioned services/ dealing with issues

• Intermediary partners (government, business, civil society) assisting in development of such actors

• Base Networks to catalyze/ strengthen

• Potentially base commercial takes over once viable

Wider Context • Demographic development & macro-level housing needs

• Prevalent socio-technical regime for construction & housing provision

• Economic trends & ease of doing (social) business

• Resource pressures & environmental risks (local & global)

• National & local level government entities

• Private sector (product suppliers, developers etc.)

• Civil society (NGOs, foundations, communities, academia & professional associations)

• Base Networks

Note: Table content is indicative rather then exhaustive

Documents

Rationale for Promoting Resource-efficient Housing for ... 3 - Natalja W.pdf · Urban & Peri-urban Low Income Groups in Asia & the Pacific Stream 2: Affordable & Resource-Efficient