LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY
Comprehensive Design Services, an innovation-focused organization building climate resilience through architecture
Chinwe Ohajuruka is a Green Architect and Project Manager who is an ardent advocate for sustainability in the built environment. She is the CEO of Comprehensive Design Services (CDS), an innovation-focused organisation that stresses the importance of building Climate Resilience as a basis of all projects. She is successfully able to work globally through teamwork, technology and travel. In addition to her extensive architectural experience, Chinwe is a green building trainer and coach. Chinwe has worked on several award-winning projects in the United States & Nigeria. She was the 2015 Sub-Saharan African Laureate for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards in France. Chinwe holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. She has also attained four Accreditations from the US, UK and South Africa Green Building Councils.
Lionesses of Africa chatted to the inspirational Chinwe Ohajuruka this month to find out more about her impact driven work in the field of green architecture.
What does your company do?
Comprehensive Design Services (CDS) designs, engineers and constructs affordable green homes that are energy efficient, solar powered, self-cooling and water sufficient. We also teach and train others to design and build sustainably in all areas of architecture. Our focus tends to be Sub-Saharan Africa where housing deficits abound, but we also work in the Caribbean to address Climate Resilience for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
What inspired you to start your company?
In 2011, I left the US and went back to Nigeria for a year to be part of the team working to establish the Green Council of Nigeria. In the process of doing the research to produce the country report, I became aware of the enormous housing, energy and water challenges facing Nigeria. Knowing that armed with this newly found knowledge, my professional experience and green-building accreditations, I could make a difference, I got together with two engineering colleagues and entered the USAID and Western Union’s African Diaspora Marketplace competition, showcasing our Affordable Green Housing Prototype. This housing model was a scalable and replicable product designed to address the environmental and social challenges around climate change resilience. Out of 495 applications, CDS was blessed to have been one of 17 winners and our pitch won a seed grant of $50,000! As the seed grant had to be matched dollar for dollar – we leveraged the win to raise funds from family, friends and business contacts. Comprehensive Design Services (CDS) was born and went on to construct our first Eco-Village in Port Harcourt, south eastern Nigeria. The Eco-Village comprised 8 one-bedroom apartments that were completely off-grid and designed for people at the lower end of the socio-economic pyramid.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
At that time, very few entrepreneurs were working in the affordable housing space and we very quickly found out why. Certainly, nobody else we were aware of was working in the affordable green housing space. As such, our Eco-Village was the first of its kind. Once the development was completed, we relocated eight families living in slums to the dignity and comfort of the Eco-Village. The homes were designed to be energy-efficient and self-cooling. Simple and easily implemented strategies like light-coloured roofs, louvred windows and cross ventilation were used. The homes were designed around courtyards to improve ventilation and build community among the residents. Solar panels were provided for power and pumping up water from and underground borehole. Compressed stabilized earth blocks (Hydraform) were used in one of the buildings to keep the walls cool, and they turned out to be quite beautiful. Most importantly, the homes cost approximately US$12,500 to the occupants to own, an amazing feat considering the challenges we faced along the way.
Tell us a little about your team
Our team comprises three members of CDS and a complement team of consultants and advisors. Chinwe Ohajuruka is the founder, architect and sustainability leader. Omie Ben-Kalio is the co-founder, general manager and lead engineer. Obiageli Enumah-Nwokocha is the project manager, in charge of the site and building operations. Please see the attached slide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R962eRReiJc&authuser=2 Obiageli started with the company as a young graduate of building technology and morphed into a tough project manager, who executed the building project with dedication, grit and competence. She became experienced in managing men, materials and money to make the building process relatively smoothly in the face of daily challenges.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
When we formed the company and started the building project, I had never heard the expression "Social Entrepreneur". All I knew was that I was determined to apply my knowledge, experience and determination to tackle a difficult but exciting challenge. Along the way, I realized that I was actually a social entrepreneur, operating in a sphere that required commitment and compassion. In the past, I had started a company that exported crafts made from our beautiful African fabrics but given it up when I could not navigate the tricky waters of a constantly devaluing currency and hyper-inflation.
My mother is a plucky entrepreneur that started a nursery school with five children in our living room. The school grew to four hundred pupils at its zenith, and is currently a nursery, primary and secondary school. I grew up watching her constantly trying to make her school stand out and introduce children to all kinds of extra-mural activities to expand and titillate their young minds! Completing the project, transplanting the occupants and setting them on the path to ownership was a herculean task. Rising inflation and continuous currency devaluation put affordable housing further out of reach of the people who needed it most.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
CDS is currently in the process of raising funding and forming partnerships to build up and complete the value chain for the successful implementation of a large scale affordable green housing development in Nigeria. We hope to develop prototype estates in Nigeria that can be easily replicated and scaled up. More importantly, CDS is training trainers - working with and consulting to organisations in Nigeria and Ghana to develop affordable green housing estates. When properly executed, the sustainable housing and estates can address several of the Sustainable Development Goals including:
No Poverty,
Good Health and Well-Being,
Gender Equality,
Clean Water & Sanitation,
Affordable and Clean Energy,
Decent Work & Economic Growth,
Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure,
Reduced Inequalities,
Sustainable Cities & Communities,
Responsible Consumption & Production, and
Climate Action, just for starters!
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
The greatest satisfaction of my entrepreneurial journey has not only been the recognition and awards. They were wonderful and gave CDS exposure, notoriety and funding. It was very satisfying, even emotional, to hear occupants speak about how their lives had been transformed and impacted by living in the Eco-Village. In this video produced by Al Gore's Climate Reality Project, one resident described it as "Heaven on Earth". http://bit.ly/2raax13 I was stunned when I heard one of the resident’s state that what she liked most was that she had her own toilet. I had been so focused on achieving the sustainability targets that I had overlooked the overwhelming impact of meeting the most basic needs (http://bit.ly/2DLGtft). I cried. And cried. Tears of joy!
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
This is our time! The world is beginning to realize that women are disproportionally under-represented in business and entrepreneurial funding and are doing something about it. As someone once said, if you cannot get a seat at the table, make your own table. Focus also on giving other women opportunities and building them up. Somewhere in the Sustainable Development Goals (which represents the greatest global needs) there is a place for you to carve your niche, find funding and make an impact. Don't try to be everything to everyone - seek advice and form relevant collaborations & partnerships that will help you and your organisation grow.
Find out more
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | EMAIL chinwe5563@yahoo.com
Why LoA loves it….
At Lionesses of Africa, we remember enthusiastically hearing the news that Chinwe Ohajuruka had been recognised as the sub-Saharan Africa Laureate of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards for her impact driven work. She was the most deserving of social entrepreneurs at that time and has since gone on to inspire and influence new generations of green architects who will follow in her footsteps. She understands the power of social entrepreneurship to make big impact happen and to positively change lives, and her green architecture model is one that will continue to make a difference for years to come. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo of Lionesses of Africa
