Nakheel backs down on compulsory Gold Leed

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The site of Nakheel’s sprawling Waterfront project. The development last week won a facilities management award for sustainability.

Nakheel has eased up on its decision to work only with developers upholding the country's sustainable efforts by building to Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) standards.

Last week, Michael Nates, Nakheel senior general manager of sustainability, was quoted as saying that the master developer would "soon start to mandate Gold Leed status for all our sub-developers."

But speaking to Construction Week, he said: "The system is being used on a selection of our projects already. Whether or not it becomes mandatory across all of our projects is a decision that will be taken as we evaluate the continued usefulness of Leed.

Leed Gold standard is the second highest status following Leed Platinum on the hierarchy.

Leed-accredited consultants EMS, Atkins and Hydra are now working on Nakheel projects. Although introducing a mandate has not been ruled out, Nates said there were no plans to introduce one in the future.

"I know in a couple of years time we will be able to demonstrate the sustainability and environmental performance of buildings," he said.

"The reason I'm not answering definitively on Leed is that Leed is one of many systems.

At the moment Leed is being supported in the UAE, but as soon as you try and take something as complicated as sustainability and put it onto the table and give it marks, there's always some professional in some part of the industry who goes ‘this doesn't do my part of the business well enough,' and so they start attacking it.

What we really need are systems that are robust and work."

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