Sunday 30 September 2018

Alternative sanitation for schools



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 pit latrines
  • 7,105 schools with VIPs
  • 2,912 schools with septic tank systems
  • 8,574 schools with flush toilets on municipal systems
This indicates some of the very significant challenges being faced by schools in relation to water and sanitation. One way of addressing this to investigate alternative sanitation models, such as the use of composting toilets, aqua privies and onsite biological systems. These alternatives avoid problems associated with flush toilet (such as large-scale water consumption) and pit latrine (the risk of contaminating groundwater) systems currently used in many schools and have some valuable advantages. Please feel free to contact us on studies, tools and papers being developed in this area.

Urban Ore

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 is having a local network of collaborators who reuse or recycle construction waste. In many areas, these networks are not well established and difficult to find.
It was therefore fascinating to visit Urban Ore in San Francisco. Urban Ore is a city block full of recycled building products. These are bought and neatly stacked on shelves and in yards enabling them to be sold and used in new projects. Many of these recycled products are in good condition and are a fraction of the price of new products. A large amount of waste is also avoided. Further detail on Urban Ore is available here.

Thursday 16 August 2018

Sustainable Neighbourhoods

Sustainable buildings are not enough; they need to be within neighbourhoods that support sustainability. This is being reflected in an increased focus on neighbourhoods. 

In the US, a hospital faced with escalating costs associated with the treatment of patients moved beyond its borders to work with neighbours to enhance local facilities which improved health.  In 2008, under Medicaid rules, the hospital became accountable for the health costs of people living in the area. This lead to the Healthy Neighbourhood Healthy Families initiative where the hospital worked with local organisations to develop more affordable local housing. It also improved education, healthcare, as well as developing a range of safety and employment initiatives.  

In Canada, Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs, are developing a district of Toronto into a prototype sustainable neighbourhoods. This explores new models for dense lower cost housing, enhanced local mobility based on walking, cycling, buses and trains and innovative energy, water and waste systems. 

The Built Environment Sustainability Tool (BEST) has been developed to assess the sustainability of neighbourhood and can be used to support communities, local government and other organisations develop structured plans to improve the sustainability of neighbourhoods.