L’Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is a public establishment at the heart of France's development cooperation system. For more than 70 years AFD has been working to fight poverty and promote development in developing countries. It also supports the economic and social dynamism of Overseas France. Through grants, loans, guarantee funds, and debt relief and development contracts, AFD finances projects, programs, and studies and helps its Southern partners build their capacities. 
 

Through the green finance label SUNREF (Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance), the “Agence Française de Développement” supports the energy and environmental transition in nearly 30 developing countries. The scheme helps private sectors seize the opportunities linked to green growth and make their projects a reality while encouraging local partner banks to finance them.

Within the framework of SUNREF III Mauritius, AFD has entrusted Business Mauritius, which oversees the Technical Assistance, to have a study on sustainable construction in Mauritius. Ecosis (Mtius) Ltd has been selected as the local consultancy firm to work on the project. 
 

The subject of "construction" is evolving rapidly in Mauritius, with a dynamic driven by large-scale projects (such as Smart Cities projects) or projects responding to a growing demand from retail or professional clients (office-type tertiary surfaces and especially other commercial surfaces in areas of strong urban development). Climate change impacts the construction sector from different angles including water usage, thermal comfort of buildings, and protection of coastal buildings. 
 

The bioclimatic design of buildings is still underdeveloped because it involves additional costs (efficient insulation, cross ventilation with minimal porosity in the walls, solar protection on exposed facades).

The study hence has three specific objectives which all converge towards the main objective of better informing project developers and banks on the criteria retained in the fields of mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and to bring out bankable projects. They will be able to apply the methods for evaluating eligible expenses to their projects, in conjunction with the SUNREF partner banks.  The following are the different objectives of the project:

- Lot 1: Construction cost repository by sub-sectors in Mauritius

- Lot 2: Comparison of the green certifications available on the international market and expected contributions of these tools to promote "green" projects using their benchmark

- Lot 3: Cost/benefit analysis of the dry construction sector for its development in Mauritius

- Lot 4: Pre-feasibility study: local positioning of bio-sourced insulation solutions, adapted to the tropical climate with their intrinsic performances compared to the available solutions and the possibility to localize their manufacturing 

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