MK Nitzan Horowitz: We need to give power to the mayors in order to promote the transformation of the cities into a place where they will want to live

MK Horowitz said these things at a round table event to present the ecological building of the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University, which dealt with sustainable planning. Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv Doron Sapir agreed with him and announced that in the future builders of large buildings in Tel Aviv will be required to build them greener from the start

The mayors are not given enough power to enforce sustainable planning. This is the opinion of MK Nitzan Horowitz, who was one of the participants in the "Round Table" that took place last night at Tel Aviv University in which the ecological house was presented, which will house the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University in the future, and which will serve as an architectural icon, and a place to demonstrate environmental technologies Such as using clean energy and saving energy, recycling water and building materials and more.

To take care of what is known as sustainability, which means reducing the residents' footprint, it is necessary to ensure that as many residents as possible live in the cities, and therefore the mayors must be strengthened. MK Horowitz says: "Mayors do not have powers in many areas, especially in the area of ​​transportation. It is impossible to return strong populations to a city center, if you do not create a system for mass transportation on the one hand and on the other hand make it difficult for car owners. Another example of an obstacle on the way to turning the city green is the objection of one official in the Ministry of Health to the use of gray water such as sink and shower water to be flushed down the toilet. The same official is stuck with outdated ideas and prevents the State of Israel from saving half of the amount of benign water that is being wasted today, and these are just a few examples of the obstacles that must be overcome in order to be able to say that the State of Israel is a leader in everything related to sustainability.

Doron Sapir, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv and Chairman of the Association of Gush Dan Cities for Sanitation, described the waste treatment project at the Hirayeh site, and in particular the facilities for separating the waste and turning it into raw materials or energy. He also agreed with MK Horowitz: "The municipality has no authority. Everything today is done by the central government, which continues to give us orders as if the British mandate had not ended. In addition, we must encourage the construction of green houses. In order to do this, as the chairman of the planning and construction committee, I require everyone who builds a building above a certain size to plan it for sustainability. We are going for a master plan that will implement this requirement and streamline the process to carry it out."

Architect Nir Chen from Chen Architects, who is one of the members of the team of architects that won the design competition (Axelrod-Grubman Architects with Chen Architects and Gautectura - architect Yossi Kuri), said that as a designer of an ecological building he had to think of creative solutions on his own and that although Israel has great minds In everything related to energy, water recycling, etc., there is no one to convey these solutions to the general public. "A research and development system must be established that will take these excellent technologies and download them for home use. Chen who presented the structure demonstrated several ways of sustainability. Among other things, all the gray water undergoes purification, and even the purification ponds have become a design element; The windows on the south side of the building are designed so that in the summer they will prevent part of the sunlight from entering, while in the winter they will allow all the sun's rays to penetrate, and more.

Orna Angel, Vice President of Planning and Sustainability at the Shikun and Binui Group, part of whose role is currently accompanying the managers and companies in the group in the implementation of sustainability in all business activities and until about a year ago she was the head of the company that developed the Tel Aviv Port, told the story of the port and demonstrated how a neglected and dirty site can be turned into a site The central entertainment of Tel Aviv, while preserving the historical heritage of the place.

The main donor to the construction of the school's ecological building, Dame Shirley Porter, formerly the mayor of London, thanked the president of Tel Aviv University, Prof. Zvi Galil for putting his weight behind the construction of the ecological building and that he understands that the issue of the environment is one of the important issues, and that it crosses Faculties. She accepted that Israel, which was once a leader in the field, is lagging behind in the environmental issue: "We read too much in the newspaper about air and river pollution and water shortages. We at the university take the matter seriously and want to show everyone how it is possible to build a structure that will contribute to the environment and that its ecological footprint will be small. The building will be a living laboratory, people will demonstrate the latest technologies in it. It may cause controversy because of its shape, but it's a matter of taste, the important thing is that it will cause people to think about green construction."