Building boom in Brazil needs a Green Plan

Sao Paulo is one of the mega-cities which are becoming the world’s dominant economic force. The São Paulo Metropolitan Region actually consists of 39 cities, with São Paulo (and about 11 million people) at its heart. Greater Sao Paulo has experienced intense growth in the last few decades. The building industry is trying to catch up with a doubling of the population between 1967 and 2002.

This growth implies more and more energy. Brazil got an energy “wake-up call“back in 2001 when a black-out paralyzed the southern part of the country. They quickly cut energy demand by about a quarter but the drive to save energy is fading. If steps are not taken they might face a second “wake-up call” in a few years time. The Brazilian footprint is increasing rapidly. Brazil will need more energy but without an elaborated policy of “controlled energy growth" , there is a risk that Brazil moves away from its sustainable hydro electricity production towards considering fossil (carbon) derived energy sources to support their rapid expansion - they might go from good to worse!

The EEB project went to Brazil for our fourth Outreach event, in Rio de Janeiro on April 3. This follows events in Beijing, Brussels and New Delhi, where we have shared our findings, enjoyed a dialogue with stakeholders and learned more about the building market in each country.

We (I was with five core project companies: Lafarge, UTC,; CEMEX, Philips and Sonae Sierra) started the Brazilian week meeting experts in; Sao Paulo. They made it clear that the building sector in Brazil is different to other countries we have; studied, heavily influenced by culture, climate and history.

The sector is booming. Both commercial and residential buildings; are growing very fast. We also learned that social housing is increasing; despite the booming market. But it is not just about new construction – Brazil has a large building stock to be; refurbished.

There is a substantial informal sector, which is; unregulated, more or less out of the control; of the authorities and operates on a small scale. There are about 60.000 local; constructors in Brazil and; they contribute about a fifth of commercial building and a quarter of; residential. The formal market is modern, regulated, following basic building; codes and normal Brazilian building practices and is becoming dominated by; bigger companies which focus on commercial and bigger residential developments.; ;

This makes it hard to estimate the size of the building; market and we couldn’t find any official figures. The experts told us the; formal building sector in the Metropolitan area of Sao; ;Paulo produced about eight million square meters per; year. If we assume that the Metropolitan area is about a third of greater Sao Paulo, we can get an estimation of total; building production figures for Brazil; of around 100 million m2 per year. This is about the same as the building; capacity in India, while China; produces about 20 times as much.

It was a busy week for us. We met student architects and; construction engineers at Sao Paulo University, who asked about issues such as; the business case for energy efficient houses in Brazil.; I also presented the EEB and our project’s main; findings to about 180 key stakeholders at an international conference with; POLIUSP (Polytechnic School of the University Sao Paulo) and CIB (The International Council for Research and; Innovation in Building and Construction).

Later in the week we had our own event in Rio de Janeiro. In the morning, EEB’s co-chairs –Constant; van Aerschot from Lafarge and Bill Sisson from UTC – began by presenting a; status report on the EEB project. Then we had important contributions from Brazilian; stakeholders representing the government, academia and the investor community.
; Paulo de Tarso, general coordinator of environmental; sustainability from the Mines and Energy; Ministry, described the public policy for energy efficiency in buildings.; Up to now, the emphasis has been on market awareness and voluntary measures; rather than mandatory actions. A system of classifying energy performance is now; under development.

Marcelo Takaoka from the University of Sao Paulo underlined; the importance of a holistic approach to the building sector and stressed the; need for improved awareness of energy efficiency among building professionals.

Jean Benevides, National Manager of the state-owned bank Caixa Economica Federal, highlighted the; way the institution is pushing for energy efficiency in its many offices all; over Brazil and has now started; to include energy efficiency in the bidding process for new construction. Its; main problem is how to integrate energy efficiency into social housing projects.

Alexandre Gaspari, from Brazil Energia Magazine, chaired a; Q&A session in which there was a lot of interest in green building; certification, life cycle analysis, green government procurement, the lack of; auditing and the shortage of building data in Brazil.

In the afternoon we held two expert roundtables, discussing; barriers to radically improving energy efficiency and how to create an enabling; building environment in Brazil. The lack of information and awareness was a; common theme in the discussions. It was also clear that technology is already; available but is not being used, skills and capacity are lacking, while the; supply chain is not up to speed with green products and support. We also; learned that consumers are not informed so that the PROCEL energy conservation program; has had limited impact.

I was astonished to find that green buildings can achieve a; 20 to 40 % premium when they are sold. Amazing!; ;But in that case, how come more are not being; built?

I came away with the clear impression that plenty is; happening in Brazil (building codes, labeling, government procurement, building; certifications ….). Sustainability is so popular that everything is being named; “sustentavel“. In fact, according to Fernando Almeida, Head of the WBCSD local; partner CEBDS, the label is; over-used.

While there are many positive trends, there are also negative ones:; cheap and inefficient air conditioning in poor homes, a virtually; non-existent insulation industry, skills and; capacity shortages, social housing lagging behind.

Comments

[Evan Morrison]

Great Report. I wonder if the local contractors actually follow the building codes since there is such a high percentage of informal building practices.