Jordan Environment Watch : UAE construction going green

There is a continuous flow of praise for the new ecological standards used by the UAE construction boom. Such innovations bring hope of upscaling and replication in other Arab countries. This is a good feature from Ethical Corporation Magazine

By: Amelia Shepherd-Smith

Two years after it signed the Kyoto Protocol, the United Arab Emirates is developing its own green building ratings system

Last year Dubai had reason to be nervous about its environmental record. Its government was not performing environmental checks on its constructors and reports revealed that only half of them seemed to care. But what was it hiding? Plenty, says the Global Footprint Network, which measures human demand on ecosystems. It claims that the United Arab Emirates is the largest resource user per head in the world. In support of its claims, WWF has named Dubai, one of the UAE’s city states, as the second-highest per capita carbon emissions producer in the world.

So concerned were 40 local business groups, they formed the Emirates Green Building Council, and this month, the UAE’s version of Leed, the United States’ environmental certification system, will be piloted.

Sheikh Mohammed, ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the UAE, has announced ambitious plans to make all buildings green. Examples so far include Iris Bay tower, which is to be naturally ventilated, the Time Residence, which uses solar-charged batteries, and Burj Dubai, a 160-storey tower set to be cooled with the melted waters of three ice-making plants.

Boualem Tiliouine, technical advisor to the Dubai Municipality Building Permits and Regulation Section, says: “We are determined to convince the real estate industry that going green can save money. Right now, contractors have the attitude of ‘tomorrow I’m not here’, but if we can just convince owners that a higher initial outlay will decrease operating costs by up to 50% we will be in business.”

An open door

Last year, engineering consultancy firm WS Atkins put Dubai on the environmental map when, in conjunction with the British University in Dubai, it set up the Enabling Sustainability Raising Awareness initiative to promote green design. The initiative has since been rolled out worldwide. “Sustainability design is a complex issue but we’ve commercialised it,” says Atkins’ Middle East technical director Richard Smith.

Smith explains: “Passive design – better insulation, cleverly shaped windows and well positioned buildings – is our initial message, because relatively speaking it doesn’t cost anything. Fortunately clients are easily persuaded.”

In construction circles Dubai is renowned for its extremes, but it is the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi, that has proven itself the region’s sleeping giant. When the government-funded Masdar project opens in 2009, it will be the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste development. Two Free Trade Zones for media companies – the International Media Production Zone and Dubai Studio City – and one for technology, Dubiotech, have also been designed in accordance with the US Leed system.

Smith imagines residential developers will follow suit. He says: “The day will come when investors, given a sustainable or a non-sustainable building, will make an informed choice. Dubai might just turn out to be very sustainable.”