Cape Town — Within the next five years, the city of Cape Town plans to enact a bylaw insisting on environmentally-friendly building methods to make new developments "greener".

The city has already finalised a draft version of the "Green Building Guidelines", which will form the core of the planned bylaw, said Grace Stead, the city's Agenda 21 coordinator.

Agenda 21 refers to the United Nations programme for promoting sustainable development.

This falls under the city's environmental resource management department.

The guidelines will be tabled before a council in May 2007, after which they will be made available for public comment.

Ms Stead said the bylaw would be aimed at reducing the city's carbon emissions.

The draft guidelines state that the "cumulative negative impact" of construction should be considered in a context where "every action contributes to climate change, global warming and destruction of our planet through the production of greenhouse gasses and exploitation of non renewable resources."

If the bylaw is accepted, she said, all new developments would have to ensure they incorporate green-friendly measures.

These measures include solar heating, insulation and water retention systems which would make developments more energy efficient. The use of sustainable building material would also be encouraged.

All types of buildings, including commercial, industrial and residential buildings would be affected.

Cape Town is taking the lead in South Africa, she said and other local authorities were "keen to know what we are doing".

Llewellyn van Wyk, Built Environment senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, said Cape Town was the "first out of the starting blocks" when it came to implementing by-laws relating to building.

Durban was also about to follow suit.

Mr Van Wyk said about five local authorities in the Gauteng and Tshwane areas were also "thinking about" going green.

"There is stronger understanding about climate change linked to various natural disasters. Slowly people are starting to understand how these things affect us," said Ms Stead.

The recent Eskom power cuts have also raised awareness amongst the public about energy efficiency.

The Managing Director of Eco-Design Architects, Andy Horn, described the green move as an "excellent initiative", even though it would take a long time "for people to get on board".

He said problems facing the building of residential green-friendly houses included National Home Builder's Registration Council (NHBRC) regulations.

This prevented people from building with non-standard products.

He added, as a result it was difficult to get funding from banks, who wanted to see NHBRC approval.

Within the building industry, Mr Horn said there was a "reluctance" to explore different methods.

Skills shortages also made it difficult to find contractors to do the work.

However, he said demand for such services was increasing.

Executive Councillor for Planning and Environment in Cape Town, Marian Nieuwoudt said feedback from both developers and the community on the draft bylaws had been positive.

The NHBRC was also slowly coming on board by accepting the concept of building with sandbags, Ms Nieuwoudt said.

Mr Van Wyk said regulations would help reduce the energy demands of the domestic and commercial sectors of the economy.

However, they only accounted for about 11 percent of South Africa's total energy consumption.

He said the industrial sector, particularly mining, had yet to be tackled for its energy consumption.

While moves toward minimising environmental damage were welcome, he said green bylaws were just "a slice of a slice" of a much larger picture.