Housing Development in the Context of Environmental Sustainability: The Ghanaian Experience

Abstract

Although a basic need, housing and its development activities impinge on the environment. As part of efforts to promote sustainability, there have been several initiatives since the Brundtland Commission's work in 1987 to minimise the adverse impact of housing development activities on the environment in the developing world such as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This chapter explores housing development activities in Ghana within the context of environmental sustainability based on the extant literature. The aim is to examine the state and promotion of environmental sustainability in the housing development sector. The chapter establishes that although there are some efforts to promote environmental sustainability within the housing development sector, uptake of environmental sustainability practices has been less satisfactory due to lack of incentives as stakeholders perceive that environmentally sustainable homes are more expensive than conventional ones. The chapter, therefore, recommends further investigations into the cost and benefit of environmentally sustainable homes as well as other drivers in Ghana to give additional insights to provide the appropriate doses of incentives both contrived and instinctive to drive uptake.

Citation

Baffour Awuah, K.G. and Abdulai, R.T. (2021), "Housing Development in the Context of Environmental Sustainability: The Ghanaian Experience", Abdulai, R.T. and Baffour Awuah, K.G. (Ed.) Sustainable Real Estate in the Developing World, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 191-206. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83867-837-120211010