Habitat for Humanity and the Kenya Green Building Society formalize partnership to advance sustainable affordable housing in Kenya

29 October 2026 | Nairobi, Kenya Habitat for Humanity, through the Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, has formalized a partnership with the Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). 

The collaboration was formalized during a signing ceremony in Nairobi, where Scott Merrill, Senior Director of Regional Operations at Habitat for Humanity, and Nasra Nanda, CEO of the Kenya Green Building Society, signed the agreement. 

Together, the partnership will explore market systems approaches to advance climate-smart affordable housing, alternative building materials and technologies, and sustainable construction practices in Kenya.

Climate-smart building solutions already exist. The challenge is creating the conditions for them to reach more households and scale. As Africa faces a housing deficit estimated at 51 million units and projected to reach 130 million by 2030, alongside the growing impacts of climate change, there is an urgent need to scale approaches that make homes more affordable, resilient and sustainable. Partnerships that connect expertise, markets and policy are increasingly important to expanding access to climate-smart housing at scale.

While innovative building materials and technologies continue to emerge, their wider adoption depends on more than technical solutions alone. Sustainable construction requires enabling ecosystems that support market growth, including reliable supply chains, skilled professionals, accessible financing and supportive policy environments.

Through the partnership, Habitat’s Terwilliger Center and KGBS will explore opportunities to address barriers limiting the adoption of sustainable construction solutions in Kenya. 

This includes strengthening confidence in alternative and low-carbon building materials, supporting sustainable construction enterprises, engaging financial institutions on climate-responsive housing, contributing evidence and insights to relevant policy discussions, and connecting technical knowledge with market opportunities and the needs of low-income households.

The collaboration will also explore opportunities to generate credible evidence on the performance of alternative building materials and technologies, including through potential demonstrations linked to housing projects. Such evidence can help build market confidence and support wider adoption of sustainable construction solutions.

By connecting different parts of the housing ecosystem, the partnership aims to create an environment in which sustainable building solutions can become more accessible, commercially viable and affordable for low-income households in Kenya.