Green initiatives need grassroots knowledge in ME

Khaled Awad, former Masdar director of property development.

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A leader in ecological building has said that the LEED certification and wider sustainability measures in construction still need a business case to make a mark in the Arabian market.

Khaled Awad, founder of Grenea and one of the minds behind the zero-carbon Masdar city, says the incentives for switching to energy efficiency – from the designs to tools and materials – are not visible to many Arab states and it is only an influence on the bottom line that will create a culture that aims to be sustainable.

“I’m not talking about sustainability in a tree-hugging sense but in reality,” he told a packed audience at the ConstructionWEEK: Building Sustainability conference in Riyadh, KSA. “This runs from water recycling, low or zero carbon and producing a higher quality of life for people – and the development must show it’s a higher quality of life.”

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The co-creator of the unprecedented green city added that any development can reduce water use by 40% and improve waste disposal by 70% without having made a major investment. Further, he doubted that the LEED certification – a voluntary system for accrediting a building’s energy consumption from the US – was ‘built’ for this region.

“LEED and other certifications are fine but they must have a grassroots understanding of what will work here. It won’t work using the standards of the US; otherwise it’s just green-wash.”

In an impassioned address that highlighted the opinion of some that climate change was just part of the earth’s cycle, and the increase in city dwellers to an estimated 70% of the world population by 2050, Awad said that even using existing technology could reduce carbon emissions by 1,800 million tonnes a year.

The obstacle, he said, is a lack of legislation and a lack of financial benefits for a profit-driven world. “You must show how all stakeholders can benefit and come onto one platform. How can we monetise this – if you can’t make money, how will it happen?

“By 2016, all food in Saudi Arabia will be imported, but there is no business case because of lack of water. Water at the moment is free, fuel is heavily subsidised, why would you, for example, use Foamglas [a leading thermal insulation company, presenting at the conference]; why as a consumer would you switch?"

“We have some developers today doing some buildings that are energy efficient, but there is no business case."

“If I was developing today, I would not build ‘green’,” he said hypothetically, in the context of a lack of incentive. “Perhaps I would do things to meet certain measures but I would not be green.”

However, Awad said it was a “privilege” to be part of the Masdar project, which he helped orchestrate from its earliest stage for the last three and a half years up until the last few months. The first phase of the city, which will house around 40,000 residents discluding visitors, is due in September.

Delegates at the conference welcomed Awad’s strident message. “Needing a business case is the right message,” said a member of one consultancy-engineering firm working one of the King Abdullah projects to CW as an aside. “At the moment green materials cost three times the amount of regular materials. There needs to be legislation so that people will spend money.”

Awad, in a panel debate following his address, said legislation that demands sustainable methods is the answer, calling for each local area to have its own legislation.