Green and sustainable building practices are rapidly growing in popularity in Costa Rica as more technology, suppliers, materials, and developments become available. In the U.S., green building is the fastest growing segment of the construction market, and many leading companies have announced plans to “green” their corporate offices. Studies have shown that people living and working in green buildings lead happier and more productive lives.
Green Building
The Green Building Seminar!
This year, the Green Building Seminar and Round-table took place at the University for Peace in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica. A good portion of the Conference tackled Climate Change, which included a variety of lectures, panel discussions and workshops. Among the assistants were students, policymakers, academics and members of business and NGO community.
Dr. Karl-Werner Schulte, HonRICS CRE, International Real Estate Business Schoo began the conference as well as set the pace of the event. The Round-table was hosted by Mr Sven Schulte, a UPeace graduate student himself.With the aid of many university, NGO and business experts, the whole event moved at a smooth pace. Tropisphere’s very own Geoff McCabe was a key note speaker there!
Eco Bloque Construction for Costa Rica
Wayne E Bird took the time to answer a few questions for Pura-Verde.com about his amazing eco-bloques, which are a long-awaited addition to the green building materials in Costa Rica. With this technology, builders nationwide will be able to build concrete-block style construction for cheaper as well as much more ecologically. The eco-bloques are made mostly from the dirt found onsite, using a machine imported by Mr Bird that uses high pressure to create them.
How did you get started with the Eco Bloques project and what was your motivation?
I was actually introduced to these products by a con man from the US. Long story but he professed to have exclusive rights to Costa Rica for Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB’s). He did not.
I knew this was a perfect product for Costa Rica and all of Latin America. Since then I have been on a mission to get these products approved for use in Costa Rica.
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