Sustainable construction firm Partanna will deliver 30 affordable homes made with its carbon negative concrete to South Abaco this year, its principal Rick Fox said yesterday.
The company has also began the development of a manufacturing plant at Arawak Cay to ensure it delivers on its pledge to government.
"The vision has really been just to take our technology to the communities that are on the front line of climate change, which are us. So right now we have partnered here in The Bahamas with the government to deliver 1,000 affordable homes. That includes homes in Abaco, an island that was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Dorian back in 2019," Fox told the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA) virtual Investor Forum yesterday.
"We are setting up a manufacturing facility at the port in Nassau this year that will answer that need. But also, we are looking at other countries in the region. We want to be able to address the acute affordable housing shortage that is out there, and then we are thinking about where we can set up factories also in the region. Then next, to act on the wholesale level to the local construction market."
Last November, the government signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Partanna for the construction of up to 1,000 green homes over the next three years, using a pioneering green technology building material that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
"We launched the business to the world at COP27 [2022 United Nations Climate Change
Conference] in November and announced our partnership with the government of The Bahamas to produce these thousand homes. Under the terms of the partnership, we are setting up manufacturing and storage facilities in Nassau that really have the capacity to deliver that need. This year alone we are going to deliver 30 homes in southern Abaco," Fox told the forum.
"We are extremely proud to be working with The Bahamas and especially grateful to Prime Minister Davis, because of his leadership at COP26, when he called the world to change and be accountable to the impact they've been driving to our shores. At COP27 we had the ability to make this announcement and we hope in COP28 we're standing as an example of what is possible."
Fox said while the company is looking to eventually offer its green building solution to the rest of the world, right now it is focused on the Caribbean region, which is on the front line of climate disasters.
"There's more urgency, there's more desperation for survival at play and those that feel they have time to discuss whether climate change is upon us and if solutions are needed, they obviously aren't feeling the yearly impact that we feel, or the day-to-day impact that we feel," he said.
"So the fact that current leaders in the region have come together to lead this conversation globally and are not only calling for change but are taking the time to invest in the change that's needed, The Bahamas has done that with Partanna and we hope to show throughout the region at large that the region itself can be a leader, no matter how small we may appear to other developing nations. We're going to continue holding them accountable and we're going to continue to show them what action looks like and what change can be."
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