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Call for tools to assess
green buildings

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DUBAI — Experts involved in the Mission Green Earth Campaign have emphasised on rating tools for assessing the green efficiency of buildings as well as dedicated endeavours to follow sustainable landscaping methods.

Published: Tue 7 Oct 2008, 1:12 AM

Updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 7:28 PM

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  • Staff Reporter

Stressing it’s high time the real estate industry became green conscious and embark on building projects with sharp focus on sustainable living, experts added that though the UAE has made LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification norms mandatory, there is a need for tools which can access how eco-friendly buildings are.

According to environmental experts, the spree of real estate developments taking place in the UAE has no precedence, and the shaping and reshaping of the land on such a massive scale have led to a topographical situation of ‘disturbed landscape’, which can lead to ecological imbalance and consequent travails impacting negatively on sustainable living. Prabhakar Rao, chief operating officer of International Association of Human Values (IAHV) and one of the organisers of the Mission Green Earth Campaign, said, “There are two important ways in which the UAE is different. First, this land is a desert.

This is a fragile ecosystem that requires a lot of sensitive understanding and care. Second, the projects here are reshaping the landscape on a scale not witnessed before.

“The created land is essentially dredged barren coral sand taken from the sea.

Thus, it not only impacts the land but also the sea floor. It results in disturbance on a massive scale. But that does not mean that there is no scope for development or that they cannot be converted into sustainable landscapes.”

Indicating that there is less emphasis on changing ‘disturbed landscapes’ to ‘sustainable landscapes’, Rao said priorities of real estate developers get shifted when projects are on the ground.

“If you observe any of the completed projects, aesthetics gets the highest priority with cost, environmental impact and sustainability following in that order. It means that while the original vision may have been right, by the time the project is completed, the factors that drive it are different from the original intent.

“When you observe the external landscaping, it is predominantly face-value driven with emphasis on a “look-good” feel.

The developers are willing to spend, but somehow sustainability slips to the lowest level of importance,” he added.

David Gottfried, founder of the World Green Council, and the developer of the LEED rating system to define green buildings, said, “First, we have already embarked on hundreds of buildings that are not green.

We lost those in terms of their design and construction.

However, we can catch those somewhat if we go through greening of operations and maintenance, maybe water efficiency, energy efficiency and air quality.”

He said that the Government of Dubai is moving in a very positive direction on green buildings, but the effort should be to move to higher levels.

zoe@khaleejtimes.com



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