In Kenya, green building standards are becoming a finance tool

For many developers and contractors, the first barrier to greener buildings is not always technical. It is perception.

That was a key challenge explored by panelists at a Kenya Green Building Society side event in Nairobi earlier this month.

Panelists at a Kenya Green Building Society side event in Nairobi earlier this month. From Second left to right ,Fidelis Sakwa, Head of Innovation and Technical Services at Bamburi Cement, Pooja Khanna, Business Development and Specifications Manager at MAPEI East Africa, and Louis Kariuki, an urban planner and green building certification expert.

The session, held on 12 June at the Sarit Expo Centre during the Kenya Buildcon International Expo 2026, was titled "From Certification to Capital: How Green Building Standards are Reshaping Real Estate Finance." CSFEP's Whitney Speke was there. Here's what stood out.

The biggest barrier isn't cost. It's the assumption of cost.

Pooja Khanna, Business Development and Specifications Manager at MAPEI East Africa, put her finger on something the sector keeps running into: developers and contractors often assume greener buildings will cost more, even when that's no longer true.

"The challenge is not only the cost of green buildings, but the perception that they are automatically more expensive," she said.

That perception shapes decisions before anyone has done the math. If developers assume green is expensive, they don't look harder at what's available — which means lower-carbon materials sit on shelves while conventional ones get specified by default.

The materials exist, but not everyone trusts them yet 

Fidelis Sakwa, Head of Innovation and Technical Services at Bamburi Cement, made a blunter version of the same point. The sector, he said, needs to stop talking and start building differently.

"We need to move from talk to action. This means transitioning from old materials and moving into eco-friendly materials."

Bamburi is already producing low-carbon cement and using it in major projects across Kenya. Sakwa's goal is to make the product more visible — to build a track record that will allow builders to feel confidence in the material. That confidence is a key part of whether builders will actually use it. 

Certification as a financial tool, not just a stamp

Louis Kariuki, an urban planner and green building certification expert, reframed certification entirely. Stop thinking of it as a sustainability credential, he argued, and start thinking of it as a financing tool.

"Certification is not the end goal,” he said. “It is the pathway that connects better buildings to better finance."

Lenders and investors need to assess whether a project will hold its value over time. Certification gives them a common framework to assess such categories as risk, performance, asset value, and long-term resilience.

 Having a clear, standardised way to communicate a building’s value  gives developers a clearer path to green finance — better loan terms, more patient capital, investors who understand what they're backing.

"Certification gives financiers confidence that a project has met recognised standards,” he said. “It creates a common language between developers and lenders.”