Quantity Surveyors in Ghana have been tasked to adopt sustainable and innovative practices in the course of their professional practice to protect the environment.
The Chairman of the Quantity Surveyors’ division of the Ghana Institution, Mr Kofi Obeng Ayirebi made this call at the opening of the 2022 Quantity Surveyors annual seminar in Accra, Themed: “Sustainability: the impact of the Quantity Surveyors world.”
He said, “The onus lies on them as professionals to facilitate any effort to protect the environment for future generations. Quantity surveying was one of the three elements of surveying that involved the conception stage of construction projects.
“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 was to cost preparation works, produce and cost a schedule of all the materials to be used during the entire project construction.
“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, sustainability, and integration lamented the wanton destruction of the environment without recourse to sustainability.
