A majority of the world’s population is housed poorly. That is, a majority of the world’s population lives in informal or irregular settlements, in makeshift shacks and huts made from brick, and tin and cardboard, often in spaces off the formal service grid yet very much part of the urban fabric. Typically, these dwellings are built with no mind to building code requirements, must less with consideration of energy efficiency or sustainable construction. The reasons that the world’s majority is reduced to living in such slums and shantytowns are complicated and vary from place to place. However, most slum and shantytown dwellers have been excluded socially, economically and/or spatially from the dominant legal and social order. This reality poses serious challenges to the goal of realizing energy efficient and sustainable construction on a wide scale. This panel seeks to explore urban planning challenges to achieve that goal. To that end, the panel will explore various legal and policy steps that might be taken to effect socio-economic-spatial inclusion and thus promote more widespread sustainable and energy-efficient construction. First, construction inputs will be considered in the context of green building certification systems and the challenges of expanding those systems into low-cost, mass housing. Second, consideration will be given to practical measures that can be adopted to promote more energy-efficient construction and renovations in slums and shantytowns globally, both to improve quality of life and energy use in the short and longer term. Third and finally, the panel will review examples of urban planning reform legislation and regulation in different countries and offer suggestions for a more progressive, inclusive legal and regulatory urban planning agenda going forward.
