At the United Nations’ Earth Summit held in June 1992, it was decided that if the earth’s deterioration was to be stopped, urgent action needed to be taken. It was also decided that every sector needed to join in the fight to save the earth as one sector’s success affected the success of another.
Based on this, each sector began looking inward to decide how they could contribute to halting the depreciation of the earth. Years of research brought about the World Cities Report by the United Nations. In 2020, the United Nations’ World Cities Report in The Value of Sustainable Urbanization revealed that the best way to save the earth in the real estate industry was to build cities that are well-planned and well-managed. The report showed that such cities had the resilience to combat social and economical ills like unemployment and pandemics. According to the report, these cities can withstand almost anything.
With the solution outlined clearly, one more question needed to be answered – “who will be brave enough to lead the way?” In countries that had experienced a considerable level of development, that question was somewhat easy to answer. In other countries, the answer came a little bit slower.
In Nigeria, that question was answered in 2003 with the building of the first-ever green city- Eko Atlantic City. The city is designed with strict compliance to the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Green Edge Standard and as such is being built to conserve water and energy reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and tackle waste disposal, among others.
Every resource the city is built to manage has been highlighted as fundamental to building sustainable economies and halting climate change. The UN-Water Policy Brief, 2019, states that water conservation is crucial to eradicating poverty, transforming green energy and creating a hedge against natural disasters. Effective water management is also key to achieving the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.
Energy efficiency has been spotlighted by the International Energy Agency and other relevant international and national bodies as pivotal to bringing climate change to a bare minimum by the end of the decade, as energy production and consumption is the principal contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Furthermore, the United Nations Development Programme stated that energy efficiency presents the opportunity of merging economic competitiveness with sustainable development.
As exciting and revolutionary as this project is, not many developers were ready to pitch their tents in building Eko Atlantic City and with good reason. The geographical location that now houses the city was once, popularly, known for numerous disastrous floods that led to the submerging of hundreds of residential and commercial areas; not to include major roadways.
Even with the building of an 8.5 km long sea embankment that now protects the area, developing the area takes the great foresight of pioneers. Thankfully, Nigeria is not without these pioneers who have committed themselves to ensuring Nigeria has sustainable cities.
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Already the efforts of these foresighted real estate companies are paying off. Eko Atlantic City has already shown that it can withstand environmental hazards like the floods it was once in danger of, and thanks to the long sea embankment, the city has been protected from the floods that have wrecked other parts of the nation. The risk these pioneering developers have taken in designing and building Eko Atlantic city is yielding dividends, not only environmentally but economically as well.
From an interview with Ronald Chagoury Jr, vice chairman of Eko Atlantic City, so far thousands of jobs have been created already and the city has not even been completed yet. Furthermore, the city has saved Lagos, and Nigeria at large, billions of naira through the sea embankment that has prevented the destruction of properties by floods.
It goes without saying that Investors in this novel green city have begun reaping the dividends of their investment and will reap even more as the city’s current population will burgeon in the days to come. One lesson to be learnt here is that pioneering comes with great risks, however, it comes with even greater benefits.
Olumodimu is group managing director of Arkland Group
