Yesterday, Eliud Kipchoge ran the marathon in under two hours. This is the first time this has ever been done. As well as the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly running shoes and 41 pace-makers, a support car beamed a green laser mark … Continue reading How targets and indicators can help achieve ‘impossible’ goals
What is public project management? Public project management involves the development of government projects, such as the building of schools, clinics, and housing. Very few of these projects are completed on time, on budget and fully achieve the envisaged outcomes. … Continue reading Public Project Management
Increasing housing backlogs and rising house prices mean that self-build may be an increasingly attractive option for many households. Building on timber frame self-build project experience, I am developing a simple modular prefabricated timber unit that can be readily assembled … Continue reading Self-build modular prefabricated housing
Affordable high-density housing has a bad reputation. Often it is managed and maintained poorly and can have a poor reputation for safety and unreliable services. To address this in a number of projects on the drawing board I am developing … Continue reading Onsite Service Enterprises
Instruments and Capacity for Sustainable Built Environments is the title of my module of the Green Building Construction Course, being run by the International Training Centre (ITC) in Johannesburg from the 26 to the 30 August 2019. A summary of … Continue reading Instruments and Capacity for Sustainable Built Environments
Instruments and Capacity for Sustainable Built Environments is the title of my module of the Green Building Construction Course, being run by the International Training Centre (ITC) from the 10 to the14 December 2019. A summary of the module and … Continue reading Instruments and Capacity for Sustainable Built Environments
There is increasing pressure on water and sanitation systems in South African human settlements. Droughts have reduced water availability in many areas. Ageing infrastructure and a lack of maintenance have contributed to water supplies being unreliable in some regions. Water … Continue reading Sanitation Options for Sustainable Housing: A Decision-Making Tool
1. Sustainability targets: Develop clear quantified sector targets based on science and human development commitments. 2. Alternatives: Identify and test alternative, radically more efficient approaches and scale up these up based on evidence. 3. Integration: Rapidly integrate effective approaches to practice. … Continue reading Six things we should be doing to make better progress in terms of sustainability
1. A disconnect between what is required by science, what has been committed to, and what actually happens on the ground. 2. Only small incremental amendments to systems are being made – these are insufficient – radical change and … Continue reading Four reasons why we are not achieving the required progress towards sustainability
“Smart” and “Sustainable” have become buzzwords in literature about built environment and cities and are generally used to describe approaches which enhance the environmental performance through the use of technology. However, wide usage has meant that these terms have become … Continue reading Developing a Research Agenda for Smart and Sustainable Built Environments
Municipal electricity costs in South Africa have risen by 173% in the last ten years; an average annual increase of 17.3%. At the same time, public funding for schools has been dropped in real terms by 8% per learner over … Continue reading Rapid Identification and Evaluation of Interventions for Improved Energy Performance in South Africa Schools
Water and sanitation costs at South African municipalities have been steadily rising in the last 5 years and are particularly high in water-stressed areas such as Cape Town. Many areas of South Africa also experience water shortages and unreliable water … Continue reading Rapid Identification and Evaluation of Interventions for Improved Water Performance at South Africa Schools
As a continent, Africa is rapidly urbanizing and urban areas are expected to experience a growth rate of 3.9% through to 2050 (Bahri et al, 2016). Much of this growth is projected to occur in smaller towns with limited infrastructure … Continue reading Water, health and a rapidly urbanising Africa
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals include specific requirements to address water, sanitation, hygiene and slum conditions (United Nations, 2018). SDG 6.1.1 sets a target for universal access to safely managed drinking water by 2030. This requires households to be able … Continue reading Water in the SDGs and the NDP
South Africa has been celebrating dams in the Western Cape filling up with the recent rains. Soon, however, it is likely that the real possibility that Cape Town would run out of water will be forgotten. Before this happens it is important … Continue reading How did Cape Town avoid running out of water?
Having developed and applied a range of tools to reduce construction waste, such as specifications, contract clauses, construction waste management plans and monitoring and evaluation systems, it is possible to reflect on what works. Key to achieving less construction waste … Continue reading Urban Ore
The 2017 National Education Infrastructure Management System report indicated that of the 23,577 public primary and secondary schools in South Africa, there were: 5,175 schools without water or with unreliable water supply 68 schools with no toilets 9,203 schools with … Continue reading School Water and Sanitation
The tourism sector in South Africa plays an important role in the economy and in 2016 contributed R 402 billion to the economy (9.3% of GDP, forecast to grow to 11.5% by 2023) and was responsible for 9.8% of total … Continue reading Sustainable Tourism Assessment and Rating (STARS)
Events such as flooding in Houston, USA, landslides in Free Town, Sierra Leone, water shortages in La Paz, Bolivia in 2017 and the prospect of water running out in Cape Town in South Africa in 2018 demonstrate that it is … Continue reading Climate Change: Implications for South African Building Systems and Components
There is an urgent need for better capacity and research on the water impacts of climate change. We are therefore working on a proposal to build capacity and evidence-based guidance that will ensure that new water systems and upgrades of existing … Continue reading Infrastructure for Water Resilience in Urban Areas
