Going for gold

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Pawan Koyal, head of corporate services, ABN Amro.

With a global corporate commitment to sustainability, ABN Amro's new headquarters is set in Dubai Outsource Zone to become the first LEED for Commercial Interiors project in the region.

In a region that lacks experienced sustainable staff and manufacturers, going green isn't the easiest or most cost effective way to do business.

But HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, was keen to see the region develop into a more sustainable one and one that was proactive about looking after the environment.

As a result, from January 2008 he instructed that all new construction projects would have to adhere to a set of minimum green standards.

Currently, there are four US Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings in the UAE and a further 38 registered projects.

There are nine rating systems, with LEED for Commercial Interiors being one and four projects in the UAE are currently going through the process of applying for LEED for Commercial Interiors.

Situated in Dubai Outsourced Zone (DOZ), is ABN Amro bank's newly built headquarters. As a company, it is dedicated to sustainability and has its very own in-house sustainability team based in Amsterdam.

When it chose to move to DOZ, there was already a plan in place to ensure it would comply with LEED standards.

But because the base building was not designed with LEED in mind, ABN Amro decided to pursue the LEED for Commercial Interiors rating.

Last month it completed and sent off all the required documentation for the gold rating and the company is now waiting to hear if they have been awarded the prestigious accolade.

But what kind of sustainable measures did they have to undertake to qualify in order to go for gold?

In the beginning

"We employed Green Technologies as a consultant to ensure we complied with all the necessary measures. They held a one-day workshop for all the short-listed vendors to guarantee they also matched the right standards to make sure we were procuring in a sustainable manner," explains Pawan Koyal, head of corporate services, ABN Amro.

Due to the company's corporate commitment to sustainability, applying for the LEED certification wasn't a new process. Koyal feels the company's experience worked in its favour and between its in-house team and Green Technologies, a solution was found and LEED for Commercial Interiors started taking shape.

To ensure the message was correctly communicated to all contractors and sub-contractors, ABN Amro employed Al Reyami as the main contractor.

"By giving control of the fit-out to one company, it was easier to drive the sustainable message," says Koyal.

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