Leeding change

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A rise in the number of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina has sparked more global concern about environmental issues.

Natural disasters like hurricanes are increasing as a result of climate change, and the impact of construction is among the worst causes. Jamie Stewart reports on what the industry is doing about it.

There is a rising tide of awareness among the public with regard to climate change and the impact of human development on the natural environment. A tide that has been rising for some time now.

Over the past two decades science has begun to communicate to the rest of the world in increasingly urgent terms concerning the direction that the natural environment is heading. The message - that the natural environment is no longer able to support the un-natural one - was not always as loud as it is today, and for many, not always as clear.

But it was clear to some, including Sarfraz Dairkee, the Emirates Green Building Council's (EGBC) Water and Energy Sub Committee chairman.

"When I started my career, oil prices, like now, were shooting up. As my passion for green issues grew, I went into renewable energy and energy conservation and became involved in many green movements.

"But within two or three years the green movement died down after having peaked in the early '80s. There were not many people who were interested in sustainability and renewable energy. Investors lost interest the moment oil prices came down."

Fifteen years later, society's complacency began to shift towards one of concern, such as that held by Dairkee, and in 1998 the US Green Building Council (USGBC) introduced the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) system that the industry is growing familiar with today.

The Leed system was developed to provide a raft of standards to measure and rate environmentally friendly construction. It has since been adopted by more than 30 countries worldwide. On the surface, it seemed that commerce and industry were beginning to heed the warnings.

Wake up call

Across the GCC countries, however, the reaction took a little longer to manifest. Public awareness finally began to catch up after receiving a two pronged wake up call.

Freak weather events, such as 2005's Hurricane Katrina, were occurring with increasing regularity around the globe. This realisation coincided with the 2006 release of the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) biennial Living Planet Report.

A section of the report measured the individual ecological footprint of 149 nations on a per capita basis. A rating was given as per the area of productive land and sea required to provide the resources consumed, to absorb waste, and to provide space for infrastructure.

The UAE was rated the nation on earth with the largest ecological footprint, by a substantial margin. Kuwait also made an appearance in the top five, and Saudi Arabia did not fare well. All three were rated as depleting biological assets faster than the planet is able to renew them. In the case of the UAE, almost 12 times faster.

Tanzeed Alam is Climate Change and Sustainability manager at WWF in Dubai.

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