By Henry Uche, Lagos
Real Estate company, Afriland Properties Plc, has credited its efforts toward creating a sustainable environment and reducing the carbon footprint, created by its activities in the real estate sector to a defined strategy focused on ensuring the company remains a major contributor to environmental sustainability.
Speaking at the 10th edition of “Unite” a leading ESG real estate event in Africa held in Lagos, the MD/CEO, Afriland Properties, Uzo Oshogwe, represented by the company’s Director, Property Development, Kayode Odebiyi, stated that the organization was deliberate in its efforts to reduce carbon emission from its activities and developments.
“In Afriland, it is an entire process that starts from the design stage to completion. The thought process is facilitated by a dedicated team that champions the framework to ensure excellence in the design and durability of the project to ensure it meets environmental sustainability standards.
“We have a group-wide framework that demands responsibility for our environment and that our actions actively contribute to healing the land rather than hurting it. For instance, across all our developments), we deploy autonomous lighting systems that monitor and react to occupancy to reduce energy consumption as well as energy-saving lighting solutions.”
The Afriland executive also stated that social and environmental sustainability were among the critical criteria considered by the organization for property investment. He stated, “We adopted four pillars that form our sustainability criteria for property investment. Social, environmental sustainability, economic and human sustainability.
“In Afriland, we focus on maintaining and improving social quality with concepts such as reciprocity and honesty while acknowledging the importance of maintaining cordial relationships in the localities where our real estate investments are located,”
Oshogwe maintained that it was important to ensure that the company’s activities do not constitute an environmental hazard to the localities in which it operates and that it significantly improves lives by providing employment opportunities and platforms for locals to upscale their intellectual capacity.
He affirmed that the company would continue to champion the ‘Green Cause’ for a cleaner environment. Saying that the future remains green, hence the company would keep driving technological adoption and promote more greener features in its developments and in communities to promote a more sustainable environment.
“The key to continuous growth is centred around reviewing our processes and driving the sustainability culture across the value chain. Our focus is on wholly addressing issues that affect all environmental impact our activities can cause to continue the progression from being high-impact to being a main part of the solution,” he added.