We've come a long way since our daily activities consisted of hunting for food or planting vegetables in our backyards. Today we have industrial-sized tractors and gruesomely efficient slaughter houses that bring an endless varieties of mass-consumption products to our hypermarkets. Our detachment from nature has increased dramatically, despite it being the pillar on which both our leisure and economic activities rest on.
In other words, nature drives economic wealth. The question is: Will it continue to do so with its resources diminishing at an increasingly rapid rate due to growing human activity and consumption?
Whether the measures being adopted or planned for today by numerous parties worldwide to prevent environmental degradation will prove effective is yet to be seen. One thing is for sure though: The target has been reversed.
As Ali Bin Towaih, director of ‘enpark' - Dubai's first energy and environment park project, puts it: "The environment used to be the tool because of resources, now it is the target."
This is exactly what projects like enpark aim to do with their eco-friendly communities. "What we're saying is instead of taking everything from the environment we are now taking care of it," says Bin Towaih.
Launched by TECOM Investments early in June, enpark could be the first of many similar projects to follow. What's more, the director explains, it will set not only an example, but also a standard for other projects in the region to refer to.
"Not being a major oil producer, the real focus on the environment and renewable energy is where the future of Dubai is heading," he adds.
With an allocated site of 8 million sq ft, enpark plans to include a business, residential, and commercial environment based on sustainable development and clean energy. Commercially, the park will include ‘green' office space, retail and boutique manufacturing facilities, in addition to showrooms for energy saving technologies. Sustainable real estate units will also be available as well as a ‘green' hotel and convention areas.
As the infrastructure of the emirate does not enable research and development (R&D) in such an industry, Bin Towaih says, what TECOM has done instead is to introduce the industry into the market instead. "The market needs to be initiated after all," he says, adding that people in Dubai have become very high consumers. He fears, with the rate of our energy consumption at the moment, production could be a problem. "It's all about the usage; how we can make use of energy properly, how to make it efficient," he says adding: "We are number two or three in the consumption of water and number three in energy consumption per capita. All these added give us a step ahead to tackle the market."
For Bin Towaih, sustainability in a project like enpark signifies meeting our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Hence, "sustainability is in everybody's actions," he believes. It is in developments, infrastructure, the way we travel, communicate, eat and the way we carry on our daily activities. Sustainability in development has been embedded in Dubai's strategy for the next 15 years, according to Bin Towaih.
"At TECOM we tried to put the Dubai Strategy into a framework. We are not trying to tackle everything here but as much as possible in the main areas," he says.
There will be three dimensions of sustainable development in enpark including economic, environmental and social. While the environment is the necessary basis to achieve sustainable development, the economy is the means, while a high quality of life is scheme's end-result.
"Enpark's environmental strategy consists of taking care of the topography at enpark, reviving it instead of destroying it. Whether it comes from people or industry, waste should be minimised and recycled. We should take care of air, land and water," he says.
Socially, one of the biggest questions, says Bin Towaih, is whether going fully-green with development will require people to pay much higher living costs. Depending on the expertise of its local team and its sustainable development consultancy, TECOM is planning to construct 40 new green buildings, as well as the conversion of an existing 30 buildings so they become green.
"There are many issues related to green buildings at the moment. One of them is energy. What we are introducing in green buildings is measures of reducing energy consumption or being energy efficient in our appliances and equipment. Investors will see that those parameters are going to reduce costs from the start of the project. The minimum we envision for energy operations only are 30% savings in cost," says Bin Towaih.
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