By @FrancesRingwood
The Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) has launched an exciting new innovation for contractors, builders and anyone else involved in the residential home construction space. Through the hashtag; “#BringChangeHome” on social networking site Twitter, the GBCSA aims to “inspire users to imagine a new green home for all”. Contributions to the hashtag are currently mostly from the GBCSA itself but the tool has incredible potential for spreading the ‘green buildings’ message more widely. Although the GBCSA uses the hashtag for marketing purposes, it has the potential to be leveraged by the green buildings community to promote the agenda of sustainable living for all. For example, imagine a company launches a new, more efficient solar water geyser. That company can use the hashtag to find interested users that might want to test the new technology in one of their buildings. Also, individual home owners who have saved on their own water and electricity bills by applying small construction-related solutions like double glazing and improved insulation can publicise their positive gains and hopefully, spread the word to other interested South Africans to make their homes more sustainable. The tool’s original and primary purpose is to promote the GBCSA’s own training courses, inspirational videos and software options (EDGE) for “Change agents, planet shapers, banks, funds, property developers, home owners, future tenants, estate agents, builders, contractors, suppliers, leaders, government, you and me” to build better dwellings. For more information, click here. Grahame Cruickshanks, managing executive for the residential sector at the GBCSA comments: “The Green Building Council South Africa has chosen to drive change in the residential property market through the implementation of the EDGE certification system. EDGE is aligned to the types of homes we live in and is intended to be affordable and accessible to developers and their teams, as well as funders such as banks and homeowners in every income bracket. With this new drive into the South African residential sector the GBCSA sees the potential to reach a large and previously untapped stakeholder group who are eager to walk the sustainability journey with us” Overcoming diffuse audience challenge Built environment professionals often face challenges with regards to communicating important news about the sector to the wider audience comprising the residential home-building sector. Ultimately, more niche marketing platforms become the primary method to communicate and those platforms will more often than not target commercial and industrial buildings.By leveraging the power of social media, building innovations for the residential market become accessible for all. Democratising information and supporting the broader goal of creating more sustainable living spaces becomes much more achievable goal through the power and reach of Twitter.
Residential market focus The need to focus more on sustainable living in the residential construction market is clear. According to the GBCSA #BringChangeHome Tweets, “South Africa is in the top 20% of Global CO2 consumer states” and “77% of people in Africa will be living in cities by 2063.” Traditional construction materials can be resource intensive but, but by focusing on innovation and recycling: “a home that replenishes the resource of its own construction” (quoted from another GBCSA Tweet) is possible. Other green home goals listed on the campaign webpage include:- A home that conserves water efficiently
- A home that produces its own energy
- A home that maximises efficiency
