The Asia-Pacific Housing Forum’s Innovation Awards have been organized by Habitat for Humanity in collaboration with the Hilti Foundation, Whirlpool and the European Union-funded SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility to recognise and celebrate innovators in the affordable housing sector. Startup and scale-up companies, policymakers and advocates, architects and engineers were invited to submit their sustainable and practical solutions for affordable housing across three main award categories: ShelterTech, Public Policies, and Inspirational Practices.
The EU and its SWITCH-Asia Programme recognise the critical importance of the housing sector to sustainable consumption and production, and promote sustainable housing and buildings as part of their support for green, circular economies in its 24 target countries in Asia. Hence, a special Sustainability Award, sponsored by the SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility, was also given to three innovators who scored highest in showcasing scalable solutions for sustainable housing. One of the winners is Build up Nepal (in the ShelterTech category).
Build up Nepal: A Change Maker in the Sustainable Housing Sector
Build up Nepal was started after the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal that destroyed 800,000 houses. The project has developed a scalable micro-enterprise model: training 287 enterprises to build 6,009 houses, creating 2896 jobs till date (learn more from this Map how the project measures its impact).
This is important as millions of Nepali families suffer from unsafe houses and lack of jobs. The brick industry is growing rapidly in Nepal, presenting a unique opportunity to create jobs for low-income families. But the industry is also responsible for poor working conditions, child labour, and 37% of CO2 emissions from combustion (World Bank).
Build up Nepal is on a mission to replace carbon-intensive, dirty fired bricks with eco-friendly Compressed Stabilized Earth Bricks. The project provides machines to local entrepreneurs to start their own micro-construction enterprises, training them to produce CSEB bricks using only local soil and sand with just 10% cement in these off-grid machines. The machines are manually operated, no fuel or burning is required and less cement in construction means 40% lower CO2 emissions than fired bricks. Each enterprise supported by the Build up Nepal initiative builds on average 10-20 houses per year and sustains 8-10 jobs within the community.
We are working to be part of the solution by empowering local entrepreneurs to build safe, eco-friendly houses at low cost. By using local materials, the Compressed Earth Bricks produced by our entrepreneurs are significantly cheaper and greener than conventional carbon-intensive, dirty fired bricks, said Björn Söderberg, Founder and Managing Director, Build up Nepal Engineering
The challenges we are addressing
CLIMATE CHANGE
Demand for bricks is projected to grow 8% annually in South Asia (World Bank, 2020) and each year, millions of families are working their way out of poverty and upgrading their housing. Their dream is having brick houses, the norm in urban areas. However, fired bricks are both unaffordable and a major climate issue, responsible for 37% of CO2 emissions from combustion in Nepal, 17% in Bangladesh and 6% in India (World Bank, 2020).
HOUSING
In Nepal, 50% of houses do not meet the standards for safe housing (Population Census, 2011). While the urban poor are often housed in slums, traditional houses in rural Nepal are made of mud and stone or mud and bamboo. The 2015 earthquakes that destroyed 800,000 houses, further cemented the aspiration for brick-cement houses. The Nepal government identified 800,000 houses for a reconstruction grant. Despite the grant, building remains expensive for rural households due to costly transport, high quantities of cement for fired brick masonry and increasing material prices.
ECONOMIC OPPURTUNITY
In Nepal, 28.6% of the population lives in poverty, of which 95% reside in rural areas (Population Census, 2018). As evidenced by the size of the outmigrant population and its 31.3% share of GDP (World Bank, 2016), the lack of economic opportunity is rampant. ILO’s 2017 figures indicate a share of youth not in employment, education, or training at 35%.
Voices from the ground
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