Kenya launches green building hub to power sustainable projects
Real Estate
By
James Wanzala
| Oct 08, 2026
The Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) has launched the Kenya Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment Projects and Solutions Repository.
The repository, which was launched last week in Nairobi during the one-day Kenya Green Building Society Conference 2026, is a national market-development platform designed to improve the visibility of sustainable and resilient projects, products, technologies and investment opportunities across Kenya’s built environment.
Held under the theme Kenya’s Green Transformation: Financing Innovation for Resilient Cities and Economies”, the conference brought together government, financial institutions, developers, manufacturers, investors, academia, professional bodies and development partners to examine how policy, finance, industry and project delivery can work together to accelerate Kenya’s green transformation.
The conference also presented progress under Building the Transition (BTT), a KGBS programme supported by the World Green Building Council.
In Kenya, the programme is being implemented across four connected areas: policy and standards; materials, industry and decarbonisation; finance, risk and investment; and development, housing and implementation.
Through Building the Transition, KGBS has established a multi-agency steering committee and four technical working groups, bringing together national government institutions, financial institutions, industry, professional bodies, developers and technical partners.
The programme is supporting implementation of Kenya’s Buildings and Construction Decarbonisation Roadmap, while strengthening work around green building standards, sustainable public procurement, the relationship between building performance and finance, low-carbon materials, industrial decarbonisation and climate-resilient development.
The programme is also strengthening dialogue on the role of the built environment within Kenya’s wider climate-resilience and disaster-risk-financing agenda.
A key contribution has been KGBS’s From Certification to Capital position paper, which examines how standards, certification and verified building-performance information can strengthen project eligibility, risk assessment and access to finance.
The work reflects a wider direction within Building the Transition: building on existing institutions and initiatives, connecting them through a shared implementation architecture and moving from commitments towards delivery.
KGBS Chief Executive and ESG Lead Nasra Nanda said the transition requires stronger connections between the different systems that shape the built environment.
“Kenya has a significant opportunity to position the built environment sector as a driver of sustainable urban development, resilience, investment mobilisation, industrial transformation and green growth. What we are increasingly seeing is the need to move beyond isolated sustainability discussions towards practical implementation ecosystems that connect standards, finance, materials, infrastructure, procurement and delivery systems across the market,” said Nanda.
The repository brings together three broad categories of market information: certified green projects, non-certified projects progressing along a sustainability pathway and products and solutions supporting sustainability, resilience and decarbonisation in the built environment.
Where information is available, the platform will capture indicators including investment value, emissions reductions, energy and water performance, renewable energy capacity, jobs, beneficiaries, and mitigation and adaptation outcomes.
This will provide policymakers, financiers, developers, investors, technical partners and other market actors with a clearer view of Kenya’s sustainable built-environment pipeline.
The repository is designed not only to showcase established sustainability leaders, but also to create visibility for organisations that are beginning or deepening their transition.
By making projects, solutions and opportunities more visible, the platform can help connect market actors with certification, technical assistance, partnerships and appropriate sources of finance.
The initial phase of the Repository will build engagement across Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Lamu and Laikipia counties, creating opportunities to strengthen county-level visibility of sustainable and resilient built-environment activity.
Conference discussions examined the sustainable-finance frameworks, mortgage products, development-finance instruments and capital-market mechanisms available to the sector, alongside the project information, certification, disclosure and aggregation required to translate green-finance interest into transactions.
Participants considered how verified building performance can provide stronger information for financial decision-making and how better-connected project pipelines can help investors and financiers identify credible opportunities.
Materials and industry discussions focused on low-carbon cement, sustainable wood and bio-based construction, industrial decarbonisation and the role of green public procurement in creating predictable demand for better-performing products.
Housing and implementation discussions considered how resilience, resource efficiency and sustainability can be incorporated into affordable housing, private development, industrial parks, urban regeneration and existing buildings.
The conference also recognised that Kenya’s green transition must extend beyond premium developments. Market transformation will require practical pathways for existing buildings, public infrastructure, affordable housing, manufacturers and developers that have not yet achieved green certification but are prepared to improve performance.
The conference brought together national leaders and institutions working across climate action, infrastructure, finance, housing, industry and the built environment.
Ambassador Ali Mohamed, special envoy for climate change in the Executive Office of the President, highlighted the importance of connecting climate ambition with practical investment and development outcomes.
“Kenya’s climate ambition must translate into the places where people live, work and invest. The built environment sits at the intersection of infrastructure, economic development, resilience and climate action,” said Mohamed.
“Strengthening the systems that connect sustainable projects with investment, technology and implementation will be critical to delivering this transition at scale.”
Principal Secretary for Environment and Climate Change Dr Festus Ng’eno emphasised the importance of measurable action and stronger coordination between environmental policy and implementation.
“The transition to a sustainable built environment requires more than policy ambition. It requires measurable performance, credible information and coordinated implementation across government, industry and the market. Initiatives that strengthen these connections can help turn Kenya’s climate and environmental objectives into practical outcomes across buildings, infrastructure and communities,” said PS Ng'eno.
He welcomed the collaboration being advanced through the Building the Transition programme, which he said is valuable.
“Its four pillars recognise that climate policy must connect to industry, finance and implementation,” he said.
The conference identified priority actions across the four Building the Transition areas and called on participating institutions to contribute projects, products, performance information, financing pathways and technical-support opportunities to the repository.
The next phase will focus on translating the conference outcomes into practical actions across policy and standards, finance and investment, materials and industrial decarbonisation, and development, housing and implementation.
Among the priorities emerging from the conference are stronger market participation in the Repository, continued development of the policy and standards architecture, deeper engagement with financial institutions on green finance and risk, greater visibility for lower-carbon materials and technologies, and practical pathways for sustainable and resilient development.
These outcomes will inform a coordinated 2027 action plan, with KGBS continuing to convene participating institutions and market actors to move from coordination and commitments towards implementation and delivery.
The launch of the repository and the progress presented under Building the Transition mark a shift towards a more connected market architecture, one that links policy with capital, materials with markets, and ambition with implementation.