Quantity Surveyors have been tasked to adopt sustainable and innovative practices in the course of their professional practice to protect the environment.
The Chairman of Quantity Surveyors’ division of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, Mr Kofi Obeng Ayirebi who made the call, said the onus lie on them as professionals to facilitate any effort to protect the environment for future generations.
Adding that Quantity surveying was one of the three elements of surveying which involved conception stage of construction projects.
Mr Ayirebi was speaking at the opening of the 2022 Quantity Surveyors annual seminar in Accra on Wednesday on the theme “Sustainability: the impact of the Quantity Surveyors world.”
It was attended by more than 300 participants as others joined via Zoom.
According to him, the theme was carefully chosen to drum home the need to safeguard the environment because of the impact of their services on the ‘built environment.’
One of the duties of a Quantity Surveyor, he noted, was to cost preparation works, produce and cost a schedule of all the materials to be used during the entire project construction.
The Chairperson of the Quantity Surveyors Division said this year’s seminar seeks to underscore the importance of sustainability in the way Quantity Surveyors operate.
A real estate economist and lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Kenneth Donkor Hyiaman, who made a presentation on green building rating and certifications took the participants through the history of certifications and how the current regime can impact Ghana’s built environment.
The president of the Ghana Institute of Architects, Foster Osae-Akonnor, who also presented a paper on requirements of green buildings, sustainable and integration lamented the wanton destruction of the environment without recourse to sustainability.
He noted that the current ‘galamsey’ menace which is threatening the environment for instance to a large extent has no sustainability plan for the next generation.
The president of the Ghana Institute Architects and Board Chair Ghana Green Building Council, Mr Foster Osae Akonnor, who presented a paper on the topic: Requirements on the Sustainable Designs and Integration explained that sustainability meant meeting ‘our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
President of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, Rev Mrs Rose Margaret Asubonteng, noted that the seminar was critical, looking at the role quantity Surveyors and the impact of their services on the built environment.
She said the exigencies of the time such as climate change and human activities on the environment made it imperative for such fora to re-orient members on the need to adopt innovative means to protect the environment.
BY TIMES REPORTER
