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By Fabián Borges
Tico Times Staff
With the goal of promoting a more
energy-efficient and environmentally
sustainable construction
industry, representatives from 14 sectors of
the construction industry, from building
material producers and construction firms
to real estate developers, agents and financiers,
recently teamed up to establish the
Costa Rican Green Building Council.
“The Green Building Council’s goal is
to go beyond existing regulations and propose
ways of better developing the constructed
space,” explained Alejandro Ugarte,
the council’s first executive director. “Costa
Rica has developed a globally recognized
brand as a country that protects the natural
environment. However, this agenda is limited
to the natural space, the green space.
But who ensures the sustainability of the
constructed space, the space inhabited by
human beings?”
The construction regulations and environmental
impact laws regulating the construction
industry in Costa Rica are insufficient
to ensure a sustainable constructed
space, according to Ugarte. That San José’s
streets flood during heavy rains and its
chronic congestion creates serious air pollution
are signs that not enough is being
done to ensure the sustainability of the constructed
space, he said.
LEED a la Tica
The council intends to develop a voluntary
environmental sustainability certification
aimed at assessing the environmental
impact of materials and buildings. The standard
will also serve as a blueprint outlining
what companies can do to operate in a more
sustainable manner.
The success of such standards will depend
on the companies’ ability to strike a delicate
balance between protecting the environment
and not imposing an unsustainable financial
burden on the private sector; in other
words, in addition to being environmentally
friendly, standards must be market-friendly,
Ugarte explained.
The standard promoted by the council will
be based on the U.S. Green Building Council’s
Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) rating system, the leading
benchmark used to certify the adoption of
sustainable green building and development
practices in the United States. LEED rating
systems are developed and updated through
consensus-based discussions among volunteer
committees from different sectors of
the construction industry. At the core of the
Costa Rican council will be a series of working
groups charged with adapting LEED to
the country’s specific conditions.
The Costa Rican council plans to make
modifications to LEED to take into account
the climatic, geographic and energy-generation
differences that exist between Costa
Rica and the United States. For example,
given Costa Rica’s year-round moderate
temperatures and that nearly 95 percent
of electricity is generated using sustainable
technologies, energy efficiency and building
insulation should be less of a concern than
in the United States. At the same time, given
the country’s high levels of rainfall, proper
water management should play a larger role
in certification here, Ugarte explained.
The council plans to begin offering regular
workshops and training seminars for
people involved in the different sectors of
the construction industry. The goal will be
to help them stay up to date on the latest
trends and international best practices in
green building. Creating a regular magazine
on green buildings is a longer-term goal of
the council.
These types of actions will help to gradually
convince more people in the industry of
the merits of greener buildings, Ugarte said.
A Private-Sector Effort
As is the case with its counterparts in the
United States and other parts of the world,
the Costa Rican Green Building Council is
a voluntary, private sector-led initiative. The
council, however, in alliance with the Federated
Association of Engineers and Architects
(CFIA), plans to lobby the government for tax
incentives aimed at promoting the use of sustainable
construction products and the development
of green buildings. Possible incentives
for this purpose include income or property
tax breaks and reduced permit costs.
However, the council does not aim to
become a specialized lobbying group.
“Our goal is not to incorporate the government
and ask it to solve everything,”
Ugarte said. “It’s the private sector that is
looking for solutions.”
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