How do you navigate the different priorities of stakeholders trying to change the built environment? What can engineering students do to contribute? Can sustainable construction techniques in Africa be applied in other countries? Dr. Rue Munemo at EPFL’s Centre for Worldwide Sustainable Construction took these questions and others during the Q&A following her Engineering for Change research seminar, Pathways Toward Sustainable Construction in Africa.
Here we present Dr. Munemo’s answers to your questions, lightly edited for print. And if you’d like to see more, find highlight clips from the presentation at the seminar’s page below.
E4C Seminar | Pathways Toward Sustainable Construction in Africa
Q: Would you talk a little bit about how you navigate the priorities of different stakeholders in terms of trying to actually get changes into the built environment? People like homeowners, sustainability organizations, government, etc.
RM: I love that question so much, because it touches on a lot of the work we do. Regardless of how you look at it, the built environment itself is complex. To introduce sustainability, you’re actually trying to tell people how to live their lives. When you look at someone like a cement producer who owns their own business, the last thing they may care about is the environment. They’re more concerned about their business surviving. And same thing for the end user; their main concern may be that they want the cement, and they’re not thinking about how it is produced.
It’s not really about forcing ideologies on people, but understanding their stances and delivering them what they need wrapped up in sustainability and resilience. You wrap it up in all their needs. You tell them, sure, you care about they care about, but if they could do it differently, at the end of the day, it’s sustainable. It’s resilient. We have to be conscientious in trying to discover solutions that include the goals of the stakeholders, because they do exist.
Problems arise when people are not trying to localize their solutions. It is a problem when someone says, ‘This worked in America, so we want to do it here.’ You have to remember, the needs for a house in in Zimbabwe are different from the needs for a house in America. You have to think about these things, because no matter what, it’s about contextualizing. That’s how you navigate this entire chaotic field.
Q: What do you think engineering students can do to contribute? And what can professors do to contribute? Because it’s very inspiring to hear what you’re working on.
RM: So that’s probably my favorite question. Starting with students, the most important thing now is shaping the up-and-coming engineers to come out of their degree programs with an understanding of sustainability. Sustainability is actually just a part of construction if we want the environment to work long term for everyone involved in it.
As engineers, we know a lot of things about, say, safety factors. I’m a structural engineer and I love my safety factors. But, if prior to all this research, someone had asked me, ‘How do you choose a sustainable material?’ That’s not something that you’re equipped with from the get-go.
We need to start presenting students with an understanding that they’re not in isolated fields. It’s not like a civil engineer will just be working with other civil engineers forever. You have to interact with the designer, the contractors and others. Architects need to understand that when you design a building, it shouldn’t be just for the aesthetics, but rather, how can you efficiently design that building to be more sustainable to construct for everyone involved in that process. That shouldn’t be up to the students to learn on their own. That’s up to the professors that design the courses. So it’s an interconnected link.
At the moment, I’d say attending webinars like this is quite good for engineers. And if you’re interested and would like to get in touch with me, we’re always looking to find people on the ground that are studying, that are working in Africa, to ensure that any work that we do, any ideas that we’re coming up with, are grounded in what people need. And the more people you’re connected to, the more you’re able to ensure that we are actually co-creating a good and sustainable built environment.
Q: We’re looking at built environment Africa, but this is a question that has global implications, right? What is your vision for the built environment everywhere?
RM: Yeah, so we actually do work in Asia as well. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are some cultural similarities between the different countries, even though they are all still very different. But what we’re seeing in Southeast Asia specifically is they are in a transition point. Their economies are shifting and some there’s a bit more advancement in the technology and the use of concrete in a lot of these countries.
One of the other differences between Southeast Asia and Africa is the climate and the style of housing. So it’s things like that, where the minute the style changes, then you have to rethink what kind of materials are more aligned. The approach is similar, but the people and their needs can change. The one thing we all understand, though, is with developing countries, you don’t really have control of all facets.
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