Tuesday Nov 05, 2024
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Tuesday Nov 05, 2024
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Current census statistics indicate an unsustainable pattern of urban sprawl in Sri Lanka, and a particularly acute situation in the Western Province. In Colombo, under 10% of housing is multi-family in nature (apartments, flats of similar), while the remainder is landed housing; this is an anomaly when compared to other capital cities in the region.
Only 9% of residential buildings in the CMC area are over four stories tall. Meanwhile, the growth in population and housing unit counts in Gampaha and Kalutara Districts are more rapid than Colombo District. Our urban form is typically low-density sprawl, which is extremely inefficient.
It is land intensive, uneconomic to service with infrastructure, and above all leads to intensely negative environmental and social consequences. These impacts include runaway traffic congestion and resulting emissions, deforestation and destruction of animal habitats, reclamation of wetlands, flooding, etc. A reconsideration of this development model is in order, if we are to put Colombo back on a path to sustainable urban development.
Q: What is the need for urban living?
Business from its inception has been focused on creating ‘Shareholder Value’ by delivering ‘Economic Profit’ at any cost. This paradigm has been universally adopted and most business schools focus on training MBA’s to deliver ‘Profit and Shareholder value’ at any cost.
Over the years, this aggressive approach resulted in businesses paying little attention to environmental and social issues as they were subjugated to achieving economic profit at a cost to the environment and society. This has led to the destruction of the environment, primarily for agricultural purposes, where over 70% of forest cover, and 60% of all animal species have been destroyed.
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| Dr. Ravi Fernando |
Q: What would be the future in terms of urban living?
In terms of urban living, with over 70% of the global population expected to migrate to ‘urban areas’ by 2050, it is an urgent priority to focus on the need to understand the role of vertical and sustainable urban living in the future. Whichever nation one lives in, the reality of understanding the need for sustainable living, consumption and vertical living will no longer be an option but an essential survival skill.
Q: Are you of the opinion that sustainability is both a challenge and an opportunity?
Strategic Corporate Sustainability is both a business challenge and opportunity of the 21st century. Innovative, fast-growing and resilient businesses and economies will be those that adapt to and align strategically to this new global operating environment.
Creating sustainable stakeholder value versus traditional shareholder value will go hand in hand with stewardship of natural capital and contributing to social progress. A company can do this by adopting environmentally and socially sustainable good practices that go beyond ad hoc to something more systemic in its approach, (i.e.: transparently embed strategic corporate sustainability across a company from top to bottom).
This requires the integration of sustainability into a company’s capacities, strategy, systems and operations, rather than being a separate CSR initiative. Strategic Corporate Sustainability dividends include reduced costs, increased revenues and profit margins, stronger market access, productivity, brand value and engagement of the new Millennial, Gen X & Y talent, and consumer.
Q: What is Strategic National Sustainability?
Strategic National Sustainability is when a nation does the same by embedding sustainability in its national strategy. The economic development strategy of a nation needs to ensure it adopts environment-conserving and protecting strategies, which include sustainable renewable energy, sustainable transportation and logistics, sustainable consumption, exiting fossil fuels and developing social empowerment strategies to enable social progress.
The nations which have embraced this concept are New Zealand, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Holland, Denmark, France, and Germany. China and the EU have made the most progress with the concept in the past 15 years. Nations compromising sustainability are US, Brazil, and Australia.
Q: Why do you think it is mandatory to adapt to vertical and sustainable urban living?
If over 70% of the world’s population is set to live in urban locations by 2050, the challenge of adapting to vertical living and sustainable lifestyles is inevitable.
Q: What are the challenges in adapting to vertical living?
The first challenge is adapting to vertical living itself. The key actors in enabling this are the property developers who build the vertical living enabling apartments. They need to have CEOs and business leaders who first understand the concepts of ‘Sustainable Development, Sustainability and Strategic Corporate Sustainability’.
They need to build apartments which enable sustainable living. The energy source needs to be ‘Renewable energy’, if required, off grid versus fossil fuel driven energy i.e. today in New York, the new apartment complexes are all renewable energy driven. In addition, the materials used need to be sourced sustainably, and enable rain water harvesting, sustainable waste management, and green cover should be a key feature.
Q: Do you see any other challenge?
The other challenge is sustainable living in the vertical spaces. Every single family living in these locations need to adopt sustainable lifestyles by exiting single use plastics, driving electric or hybrid vehicles, buying only sustainably made furniture and fittings and ensuring sustainable consumption of resources.
