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"At the beginning of 2010, there's been a construction boom in Mongolia, especially in the capital Ulaanbaatar. There was little awareness about the environmental issues of the construction sector, out-dated standards and little attention paid to insulation", says Thibault Chapoy, Head of Mission of Caritas Czech Republic (CCR). When the construction boom started, he recalls, there was little knowledge about the importance of energy efficiency, and in the context of Mongolia, where heating is needed for as many as eight months, the energy consumption of buildings takes a heavy toll.
Since 2012 the Czech NGO has been leading the Greener construction SWITCH-Asia project that promotes energy-efficient buildings in Mongolia by sharing Europe's experience and know-how, and adapting it to the local context.
The project's training programmes to the local industry, vocational colleges and local university as well ascapacity-building activities with policy-makers helped bring building's energy perfromance to the forefront in Mongolia. The project is finishing in August and Chapoy is proud to note that "Now people are much more aware of the impact that the construction industry can have on the environment. A lot of important regulations, laws and action plans have been adopted by the Mongolian government during the lifetime of the project. While we are not the only ones accountable for this, we contributed to this switch in the policy of the government", he explains.
"Since 2014, Mongolia has a green development policy approved by the Parliament, with a clear focus also on construction. It's a very ambitious roadmap that sets different targets for 2030, in terms of energy consumption for buildings and different types of waste", says Chapoy.
Building up on the current achievements and supporting the country in further advancing environment-friendly construction, a new EU-funded SWITCH-Asia project will start in the second half of the year.
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GREENING MONGOLIA'S CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
The initial focus of the current SWITCH-Asia project was the development of building materials from the fly ash emitted by Ulaanbaatar's combined heat and power plants, which poses a serious health and environmental hazard if deposited in the open.
Four years after the project's inception, about 20 local companies are producing ash-based building materials in line with specific Mongolian standards that the project helped to develop and which factor in safety precautions related to fly-ash transport and storage.
In cooperation with the Construction Development Centre (CDC) of Mongolia's Ministry of Construction and Urban Development, the project trained approximately 150 Micro, Small and Medium Entreprises (MSMEs) and more than 2,000 construction workers in greener construction techniques. According to the project, theirs was the first construction training in Mongolia with a focus on environment.
The training materials were developed by the project partner the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL, and adapted by Mongolian experts to the local context, with local case studies, through what Chapoy defines "a perfect combination of European and Mongolian perspectives". This ensures that content remains relevant to the local beneficiaries and nurtures their sense of ownership towards the project, he explains.
Different training modules have been developed for different target groups, including policy-makers and future industry professionals. In fact the SWITCH-Asia project also signed Memoranda of Understanding with 12 Mongolian vocational schools and trained 250 teachers. Five such schools have already included into their formal curricula the project's energy efficiency training that covers all aspects of the construction process, from building design, measuring and improving energy consumption to construction waste management, which is the focus of the forthcoming SWITCH-Asia project.
The project made a point of adding energy efficiency as well as occupational health and safety into the programme as areas of special attention. Workers' safety and protection remain crucial in the sector.
Similarly "Greener Construction" steadily cooperates with Mongolia's University of Science and Technology in Ulaanbaatar. 80 percent of Mongolia's construction professionals are trained in this academia, where 200 students are already following a curriculum on greener construction practices developed by the SWITCH-Asia project.
It is expected that the cooperation with vocational schools and the university will continue over the coming years, as the demand for dedicated experts raises and project's training is tailored to it.
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MONGOLIA’S NEW ENERGY AUDITORS
With the construction industry growing, awareness raising and new policies in place, "the government has realised that energy auditors are very important for Mongolia", states CDC deputy director Gantulga Dorjpalam. "We do not know the existing buildings' [energy] consumption and [performance] rating. We can calculate it approximately but we now need more detailed calculations."
To meet these needs, "Greener Construction" joined hands with the sheep wool building materials project. As of 2013 this other SWITCH-Asia intervention has been supporting Mongolia to turn sheep wool into a building insulation material and worked with CDC to create related product standards.
As part of its activities, the sheep wool project provided a preliminary training on energy auditing, following which an extended and more detailed version was organised by the two projects together. That is how in February a delegation of Mongolian auditors from universities, the energy efficiency centre and CDC took part to a week-long training on energy auditing in Berlin. "It's a good example of synergies with another SWITCH-Asia project", comments Chapoy.
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The training was given by the Renewables Academy (RENAC) and provided an in-depth coverage of EU directives, laws, regulations and guidelines on energy efficiency, building certifications and accreditations across Europe as well as building energy audits and related measurements.
Participants also joined group exercises and site visits. Interviewed during the final certificate award ceremony, they unanimously described the training as "very useful" and particularly appreciated the broad coverage of European case studies. While experiences and solutions from countries such as Germany are internationally more known, the trainees strongly valued the opportunity to also learn of less familiar cases such as those of Belgium or the UK. They were also impressed by the measurement equipment and tools used in Europe to conduct audits and purchased some samples to bring back to Mongolia where they are either unavailable or highly expensive.
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Noting how Mongolia is still short of experts on building energy auditors, deputy director Gantulga Dorjpalam said that "maybe the participants who attended this course will conduct the future assessments of the existing buildings" in Mongolia.
Upon successful conclusion of their training in Berlin, some of the participants started taking plans to arrange a dedicated training for building auditors in Mongolia next year. The training received in Europe has been conducive to this, they explained, and auditors will be trained to set in place the system envisioned by the latest regulations.
Broadening professional expertise within the industry and strengthening policy implementation remain indeed the main issues to tackle, to pave the way for a more energy-efficient construction development in Mongolia.
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NEXT: FOCUS ON CONSTRUCTION WASTE DISPOSAL
"Environmental protection is one of the key aspects of Mongolia's development", comments Chapoy, "and we want to work in line with the new priorities of the government".
This is how the concept of a new project came about. Returning from one of the project visits in the Czech Republic where they were trained on Europe's green construction initiatives and legal framework, a delegation of Mongolian construction professionals and policy-makers suggested setting in place a dedicated project to address the problem of construction and building demolition waste.
While the ongoing project only addresses construction waste at the sidelines, the upcoming one, named "Improving resource-efficiency and cleaner production in the Mongolian construction sector through materials recovery", will address how to recycle construction waste and manage demolition debris, including hazardous wastes (e.g. asbestos contaminated materials).
The project will also work on developing products made of recycled materials, designing marketing strategies and providing labeling schemes to ensure quality and foster trust. Cooperating with both the government of Mongolia and the large real estate developers and construction companies, it also aims at encouraging new regulations that make the industry cleaner during both the construction and demolition process.
Innovative training tools and methodology are being designed by the new project team, which will still be led by the Czech NGO and include the Dutch University TU Delft, Mongolia's Economic Policy and Competitiveness Research Center and Mongolia's University of Science and Technology.
Europe is still seen in Mongolia at the top of international innovation, especially in the construction sector, explains Chapoy. European standards and labelling are highly appreciated, and the European brand is a guarantee of good quality products, he adds. Leveraging this good reputation, the concluding and upcoming projects will continue strengthening Europe's contribution to a greener construction development in Mongolia.
Text: Silvia Sartori (SWITCH-Asia Network Facility)
