March 2^nd: EmiratesGBC Members and Partners convened at the showroom of Corporate Member, Shaw Contract, which is located in the artistic Dubai Design District. The group assembled at the industry networking event to hear experts discuss the recent trends and best practices adopted in the waste management sector in the UAE. With the building and construction sector estimated to be using two-fifths of the world’s energy and material flow, and contributing 60% of its waste in the UAE alone, this was a timely event where audiences gained beneficial insight into plausible solutions to overcome the waste issue.

The event was moderated by EmiratesGBC Treasurer Habiba Al Marashi, and the speaker’s panel comprised Christopher Champlin, Regional Vice President MEA at Shaw Contract; Tushant Suri, Head of Sustainability Middle East at Multiplex; Manikantan Ganesan, Marketing Manager at Emirates Steel; and waste management expert, Sonia Nasser.  The panelists engaged the audience with the latest statistics on waste management, which led up to an educational reporting of how member-specific operations reduce their overall costs through the implementation of construction resource efficiency and carbon value engineering in order to support the transition of the UAE economy to a circular economy.

Last month, EmiratesGBC Vice Chair, Afra Al Owais, represented the Council at the Eurovent Middle East HVACR Leadership workshop on building retrofit. Afra provided a keynote address to the attending engineers, MEP consultants, investors and planners on the potential for building retrofit in the UAE and its role in making the building stock more energy and water efficient.

Drawing on the findings from the recent Energy and Water Benchmarking Study carried out by EmiratesGBC, Afra provided the national context for subsequent speakers from the industry to discuss innovations, techniques and solutions for retrofitting buildings in the region.

To learn more about building retrofit technologies and methods, visit our website, or enroll in our certified Building Retrofit Training course offered in partnership with Masdar and Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.

4^th March: Vice Chair Farah Yassine delivered a presentation to a visiting delegation of undergraduate students from Napier University in Scotland. Alongside other industry representatives, Farah delivered an engaging presentation which provided an overview of the construction industry in the UAE and discussed how engineering and architectural students could incorporate sustainability into their career choices.

Farah highlighted the importance of these young leaders using their voice and being active in the green building community. If you know a young professional who is interested in sustainable development and is looking to get involved in their sector, we encourage you to invite them to join EmiratesGBC as a student member where they will have access to our events and educational offerings.

Our Net Zero Centre of Excellence was launched in 2018 as a think tank and accelerator to advance net zero carbon buildings in the UAE as part of its commitment to World Green Building Council’s Advancing Net Zero Project. We invite you to explore our website to see the work we are doing. We have also summarized our objectives and actions in the EmiratesGBC Snapshot.

According to the Global Status Report 2019, the manufacture of building materials and products account for 11% of energy-related global CO2 emissions. To keep global warming to below 2 degrees, and ideally below 1.5 degrees, we must reduce the operating emissions from buildings. We invite the industry to explore and pursue the International Living Future Institute’s Zero Carbon and Zero Energy Certifications, which promotes the design of high performance, climate-positive buildings that account for their total carbon impacts by reducing and offsetting both operational and embodied carbon.

If you are working on a net-zero project and would like to learn more about the certification, email us at netzero@emiratesgbc.org and we will be happy to set a meeting to discuss the benefits of the certification as well as process the certification for you. The first 10 pilot projects in the UAE that apply to ILFI’s ZE and ZC certifications receive a discounted rate.

Given the current circumstances and public health situation, EmiratesGBC has suspended all in-person events, workshops and trainings in line with advice from the UAE government. In the coming weeks, we will be offering online opportunities to our members and partners to continue to raise awareness and build capacity in the form of online seminars. As with all our events, we will be drawing on the expertise of our member network to deliver the most engaging and up to date information and cases studies relevant to the industry in the UAE.

If you are interested in getting involved and want to facilitate a webinar or would like to share ideas, please contact us at events@emiratesgbc.org with details of the topic and nominated speaker.

EmiratesGBC is continuing with preparations for in-person events later in the year, from workshops and focus days on our priority areas such as Net Zero Carbon Buildings, Energy Efficiency and Building Retrofit to our flagship Annual Congress and Annual MENA Green Building Awards. We have a range of partnership opportunities for members, which is a great opportunity to get involved and showcase your organization’s leadership and commitment to sustainability. To find our more, please contact engagement@emiratesgbc.org.

As part of ongoing webinar series in collaboration with GBCI, Emirates Green Building Council is pleased to invite you to a webinar on Tuesday 7th April at 4pm GST.

LEED v4.1 O&M, is USGBC’s rating system to certify existing buildings and facilities and is widely used within the Middle East. LEED v4.1 O+M is powered by Arc, the platform that was created to help people design, build and operate buildings and spaces that benefit both people and the environment. Arc delivers a holistic performance score for buildings in pursuit of more sustainable, efficient and livable buildings though data inputs to benchmark themselves and improve performance and human health. With “Arc for All” , Arc is available free of charge for all users and building types, to assess operational performance and take steps towards earning LEED Certification.

Join experts from GBCI and Arc Skoru as they provide an overview of the LEED rating system for existing buildings and a live demonstration of the  “Arc for All” platform. Get started with your building performance monitoring and benchmarking exercise through this webinar!

 To attend please complete the registration form through the following link.

EmiratesGBC is proud to participate in the World Green Building Council Plant a Sensor campaign, demonstrating our commitment to enhancing human health and fighting climate change by increasing access to vital data on air pollution.

Plant a Sensor is a global air quality campaign led by the World Green Building Council under their Better Places for People program, in collaboration with RESET and in partnership with the Wilson Centre and Earth Day Network. As participants, EmiratesGBC will be installing air quality monitors in our office in Dubai, UAE and publicly sharing the results through the open access data platform, RESET Earth. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks.

Following the advice of health and safety advisory authorities, we postponed our technical workshop for the month of March to June 17th. The workshop will be facilitated by Consistent Engineering Consultants on the topic of Optimizing Load and Ventilation Rates for Office Buildings.

Until our technical workshops can be held again in person, we will be conducting these monthly gatherings online as technical webinars facilitated by EmiratesGBC Members. The next scheduled webinar is on April 14th and will be facilitated by ARUP. Given the importance of city infrastructure, especially in the current challenging times due to the current pandemic, the webinar will focus on City Resilience and will provide an overview of what defines resilience and how it can be measured. The link to the webinar will be provided prior to your registered email address, so please register through the upcoming invitations.

We will continue to monitor the situation and will be providing technical webinars moving forward. If you are interested in facilitating a workshop/webinar in 2020 please email us at technicalworkshops@emiratesgbc.org.

EmiratesGBC is pleased to be a supporting association for the 10^th edition of the upcoming MEFMA CONFEX which has been rescheduled to take place from November 8 – 11^th , 2020 in Dubai under the theme of ‘Facility Management Transformation towards Sustainable Development’. For further information visit the event website.

6^th Annual Retrofit Tech MENA

EmiratesGBC is pleased to support the 6th Annual Retrofit Tech MENA which will now take place from 7-8 September 2020 in Roda Al Bustan Hotel, Dubai, UAE, to address the latest retrofit innovations to accelerate the growth of the retrofit sector in the UAE and MENA region.

This prestigious annual gathering of high-level decision makers and industry trailblazers presents an ideal platform for energy efficiency management services companies and solution providers to showcase their innovative technologies and solutions, and learn more about the upcoming projects in the UAE and the MENA region as a whole.

EmiratesGBC will be participating in the conference and sharing insights around the energy efficiency and benchmarking in the UAE. EmiratesGBC members are eligible for a discount upon registering for more details contact opportunities@acm-events.com.

For more information, visit: http://bit.ly/2VhOaFS.

Early in March, EmiratesGBC held a workshop with Emaar Hospitality Group on Green Hospitality and the Green Key certification, a standard of excellence in the field of environmental sustainability and sustainable operation within the tourism industry.

This workshop supported the collaboration between the two parties and is a follow up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) established in 2018 that stated that the certification will be provided to the assets under the Group after ensuring that they uphold the international criteria of Green Key, covering areas such as environmental management, staff involvement, guest information, water usage, washing and cleaning, waste management, energy use efficiency, food & beverage handling, quality of indoor environment, green areas, and green activities.

In 2019, EmiratesGBC successfully managed to certify properties under the Address Hotels + Resorts brand and Vida Hotels and Resorts brand. The Green Hospitality workshops served as a refresher for the employees at certified hotels, and as an induction to the four new hotels in the group.

“In addition to installing efficient fixtures, building owners can take a step further by installing a water management system, which can potentially save significant water as usage is linked directly to its source, which helps target reduction where needed and troubleshoots leakage. Water management systems use metering and submetering technology.”

The above is one of many useful tips available through the EmiratesGBC Green Building Tooltips. The Tooltips is an online platform serving to further educate the industry and community on simple green building practices. The interactive designs cover three different building typologies, showcasing home, school and office buildings.  The initiative is powered by BASF and Rain Bird and is supported by Taqati.

The Supreme Council of Energy, with the support of multiple government entities, has developed an Energy Management guidebook to serve as a guide for entities to improve their energy consumption performance. The guidebook can be used by higher management, operations managers, engineers and all other staff who work on establishing an energy management program within their organizations. The guide has been developed to enable organizations to stay in line with the government’s leadership vision of creating a sustainable future for our Emirate.

Click here to access the guide in Arabic and English.

The Middle East & North Africa Green Building Council (MENA GBC) network has issued its 3^rd newsletter. Click here to read the latest highlights on the 2020 MENA Green Building Council and learn about the recent efforts made by regional GBCs to promote sustainable development.

In an effort to build an environmentally conscious society, EEG has launched another exciting initiative which involves the youth and communities as a whole. The project, titled Green Call, is a mini-recycling campaign and is being rolled out from March 20^th – April 20^th.

To participate, you must collect and deposit a specific quantity of mobile phones for an opportunity to plant a tree sampling. See flyer for more details.

Mobile phones have become an integral part of each and every individual’s life in the 21st Century. As our daily lives largely consist of ever evolving technology, we use, upgrade and discard outdated phones. Little known fact is that, mobile phones contains various precious resources, which can be extracted and reused in the industry to manufacture new mobile phones and various other products. Recycling closes the loop and limits the requirement of extracting raw materials from the earth and minimizes the toll on the environment as well – highlighting the importance of a ‘circular economy’.

The participant’s commitment towards achieving the set targets within the time period will make them eligible to plant a tree under their name on 20th December 2020 and also receive a certificate of participation upon completion. [To Register]

The Building Retrofit Training Program teaches the fundamentals of Building Retrofit and Energy Efficiency and equips professionals and students with the skills and knowledge to implement retrofit projects in the region. The introductory course is a great opportunity for those looking for an overview of the topic while the advanced course gives technical experts the opportunity to highlight their knowledge with certification.

The Building Retrofit Training Program runs throughout the year – register today to secure your place on an upcoming course.   The next introductory course will take place on the 1^st of March in Dubai and the advanced course is scheduled for the 4-5th March.

The program is in partnership with Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) and offers two levels of training:

• Advanced Building Retrofit Training Course: This two-day course is perfect for engineers and technical experts with prior experience or currently undertaking retrofit projects who wish to enhance and streamline their knowledge of retrofit principles and methods. Participants of the course will undertake an examination which will allow them to become an EmiratesGBC certified Building Retrofit Specialist.
• Introductory Building Retrofit Training: For non-technical professionals looking for an overview of Building Retrofit methods. Led by expert facilitators, this one-day course provides knowledge of sustainability to industry professionals looking to understand the fundamentals of building retrofit.

Further information about the courses and eligibility guidelines can be found on the Building Retrofit Training webpage. EmiratesGBC can also schedule in-house training for groups of 10 or more, please contact training@emiratesgbc.org to request a proposal. EmiratesGBC members and partners will receive a 20% discount off the registration fees.

Hear what some of our previous participants had to say about the course:

‘I took BRT because I am a non-technical professional entering the retrofit sector in Dubai, working on demand side management. This course gave me a solid overview and understanding of building/villa/structure from a retrofit perspective and the current legislation and trends in Dubai.’

 ‘I would like to personally thank EGBC for introducing the BRT as it became really a good reinforcement to tackle the issues concerning the built environment especially the existing buildings. Truly, if majority of the building professionals, owners and the building occupants are aware of the impact of buildings, EGBC’s launching of the certification for Building Retrofit specialists will paved the way to transforming buildings and the built environment in general as high performing and low to zero carbon places on earth.’

As a response to the coronavirus (COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations (REHVA) experts drafted a guidance document on how to operate and use building services in areas with a coronavirus outbreak to prevent the spread of COVID-19 depending on HVAC or plumbing systems related factors. Representing a network of more than 120.000 engineers from 27 European countries, REHVA guidance complements the general guidance for employers provided by WHO and is targeted to commercial and public buildings.

To read the guidance, click here.

Smart cities are — almost by default — associated with the ‘smart’ adoption and use of latest technology concepts. Amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, several entities across the world have announced remote working plans, made possible by online tools.

With much talk about advanced solutions such as meetings via holograms potentially replacing video conferencing, technology and innovation are probably of lesser concern, and not only in the corporate sector. That is why — when we speak of smart cities — it is crucial to consider sustainability, cost-effectiveness, liveability, mobility, security and safety, and human centricity, in tandem with technology. [Read more]

Good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) lies at the core of human-centric design, with Dr Farheen Khanum, Environmental Geography, Director, Environment, Mruna DWC, emphasising that air quality can be likened to the respiratory system of a building. “Acoustics, lighting and quality thermal designs are also important components of IEQ that will lead us towards comfort and productivity and ensure the health of occupants, which is especially important in this changing climate.” [Read more]