Bin Towaih: 'Going green has saved us money'

Ali Bin Towaih, executive director of SEED, and Enpark

Building more sustainable, LEED compliant projects should provide good returns which outweigh the initial investment, a leading executive has said.

Ali Bin Towaih, executive director of SEED, and Enpark, the energy and environment park, said his experience of projects developed by Tecom, of which Enpark is a member, demonstrated that seeking LEED certification had saved the developer money and had provided returns even in the short term.

"Contrary to the long held assumption that going green merely adds to your capital expenditure, it is clear from the numerous projects successfully completed by Tecom that this is definitely not the case. In fact, going green has saved us money, and not merely in the long-term. We have, on the other hand, seen immediate returns on our environment-friendly initiatives," said Bin Towaih.

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"As a case in point is Tecom's management office, which we have transformed into the greenest commercial interior in the Middle East by achieving LEED platinum certification. The green premium of this project was an incredible 0.48%. Another example is the Diac LEED Silver, a project which had a green premium of only 0.08%," he added.

He advised developers to incorporate LEED compliance into a project as early as possible for the best results.

"The importance of early coordination through integrated project teams cannot be stressed enough. Successful LEED certification of these projects can be largely attributed to the integrated team work, starting at the very early stage of the project,” said Bin Towaih.