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UK companies drive towards a greener future
A lot has been written recently on the growing awareness of the public in Dubai to the environmental and ecological implications of the nations' frantic growth and race to cement its position on a global stage.
Sustainability is fast becoming the watchword as more people want to be seen to be conscious of the wider responsibility everyone has, not just to the region but to the entire planet. Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth has done as much as anything to heighten the sense of urgency needed in this regard.
But talking about it is all well and good, yet is anything actually being done within the emirate to push the sustainable agenda and actually implement green practices that may go some way to usher in a new swell of support for sustainability. To that end, a number of British companies are at the forefront of this change, driving new policies and innovating new approaches to construction.
Atkins Middle East has for a number of years been synonymous with the region and with conceptually advanced and pioneering buildings. The Bahrain World Trade Centre, currently under construction - which will use wind turbines to generate 15% of its energy - typifies this approach and serves not only to demonstrate vividly what can be done with a little ambition, but also paves the way for other developers who perhaps had been reticent in the past to pursue such ideas.
Lee Morris, senior architect with Atkins says that while the quixotic nature of the construction industry makes it hard to push the green agenda, a change is imminent. "In Dubai, we are in a unique situation of building a brand new city and country and you need to go a certain way down the line to create some kind of credibility. I think over the next two years there is going to be a redress; there will be a period where people are going to reflect and I think the whole issue of global warming and the media hype about where it's going, along with social responsibility, are going to come into the psyche of a lot of people and you will see a big difference in where people's focus will be in terms of development."
According to Morris, there needs to be a real paradigmatic shift from developers to address the balance: "Currently you get a brief, which says ‘we want this amount of accommodation, it must have this much retail' and so forth - sustainability and all the issues that come with that, come way down the pecking order."
But whether these issues have been consciously pushed aside or not, Morris believes there is a sincere desire from the top to engender change in policy, "His Highness Sheikh Mohammed has signed the Kyoto protocol so they have a commitment to engage. However, like most countries that have signed the protocol, to ratify it through various governments is a lot harder, the signing is the easy part," he says.
This ambition is demonstrated clearly with the news that Atkins is working on a low carbon emission tower. To be located at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Morris says that the design is still very much in the early stages. "We are working on a potential project for DIFC and are looking at it having zero carbon emission. The tower would produce its own power - enough to counter the energy of the building. Now that would be a huge goal," he says.
Morris adds that while the project is conceptual, land has been set aside for it and it has been approved by DIFC.
The current aim, which may still change, is for the tower to reduce energy consumption by up to 65%.
Morris says Atkins will focus on the tower's orientation, increased thermal insulation of the building along with high-volume photovoltaic cells. The company is also looking into integrating wind turbines into the building.
Atkins is also responsible for Iris Bay - currently undergoing shoring work, which demonstrates how intelligent design can offer simple environmental solutions. Richard Hay, concept designer and lead project architect of the building echoes Morris's view that a change is just around the corner. "I think we are going to see an exponential leap with regards to Dubai picking up its own responsibilities with regards to sustainable issues.
"It takes time because some of the issues are technological and political; you have to get the two in sync with each other to be able to appreciate sustainable issues. It has to be more than a wish, it has to be a physical action. That takes time, resources and technology," he says.
Iris Bay itself contains a host of features in its bid to set a green benchmark; it features innovative panelling which will integrate photovoltaic mesh into the glass to harness the sun's energy and provide shade to the façade, while the double-curved pixelated shells of the tower act as supply and return air vents to the plant rooms, allowing the façade to be louvre-free. Hay adds that such a design does not necessarily mean escalating costs and in fact, simply demonstrating common sense to the design can be environmentally advantageous. "The features of the project that seem unique, I would consider a natural requirement of the times; for example the car park is naturally ventilated. So you can create a beautiful façade which isn't hugely expensive and still have it naturally ventilated," he says.
Other sustainable building projects in the region include the Trump Tower on Palm Jumeirah which has vertically mounted solar panels to generate energy as well as pipes running through the external skin of the building, which heat water.
In the wider picture, David McKenna, senior environmental consultant, Hyder Consulting believes a great start has been made in encouraging sustainable design practices in Dubai and across the UAE. Last July the Emirates Green Building Council (EGBC) was set up, with Hyder as one of the founding members, and the council is due to open a Dubai office in March. More encouragingly, says McKenna, several high-profile developers have joined as corporate members of the EGBC, including Sama Dubai and Nakheel. McKenna adds the Ministry of Public Works has also contracted the EGBC to prepare Green Building Guidelines, while similar initiatives have been instigated by the environmental regulator in Abu Dhabi.
Most prominently for Hyder has been the formation of its Sustainable Design Group, which in the words of McKenna is committed to ‘making sustainability work - achieving optimal environmental, economic and social results for an initiative or project.' It is the role of the SDG to coordinate a multi-disciplinary team approach in the delivery of sustainable solutions to projects. Furthermore, the SDG will provide a platform for which Hyder can assess its own environmentally sustainable design capabilities and build upon them, whilst establishing a unified knowledge-sharing forum. McKenna adds: "Within current public policy settings, sustainability concepts will only be truly integrated into day-to-day decision-making if there is a business case for them. Using accepted business techniques and measurement methods, the SDG will seek to quantify the value of sustainability activity for an organisation."
While Morris stresses the importance of the role the government takes in responsibility, McKenna is unequivocal who should bear the brunt, citing the entire tranche of teams involved in construction should step up: "Though consultants are very much at the frontline in relation to lead the construction industry towards a greener and more sustainable design, without all other parties stepping forward to lead their own organisations in the same direction then no real progress can be made. A good start with the EGBC and government policy must be followed up with enthusiastic acceptance by all parties," he says.
To encourage greater participation, Hyder has implemented a number of policies to encourage greener methods. Its environmental department has a policy of incorporating sustainable design principles into the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of all its major infrastructure projects. This recently included the Falcon City of Wonders, the Jumeirah Lake Towers and the SHAMS development by Sorouh on Reem Island, Abu Dhabi. The SDG will address seven key sustainable design aspects, namely; buildings energy, indoor environment, water resources, waste management, site and operation. McKenna adds that Hyder recently sponsored a student to carry out an MSc in Environmental Design of Buildings and is also advocating in-house training, attending conferences, courses and seminars to continue their professional development.
This academic approach is not the sole preserve of Hyder, however. Recently Atkins announced it was teaming up with the British University in Dubai (BuiD) as part of its international awareness programme on sustainability in construction. Under the terms of the joint programme, experts from BuiD and Cardiff University, its UK partner, will advise and consult with Atkins' engineers and architects on all areas of sustainability and feed their findings into international research programmes.
"It's not a bespoke idea," says Morris. "The bespoke nature is the person who is chosen as the go-between between scientific data and constructability. It is about translating cutting edge technology and then saying ‘we understand what it means, take it and use it'. It's all about the translation of information to the source."
Despite these motions to educate, both Morris and McKenna are acutely aware there are some sizeable challenges to confront before any significant shift in sustainability will occur. For example, climatic factors will play a prominent role, with the continued reliance on air conditioning and urbanisation replacing traditional Arabic architecture - which incorporated passive design such as wind-traps, solar shading and other features - with high-rise buildings. There is also the huge challenge to reduce water consumption: "If the water supply to domestic taps was lowered by just a few bars," says McKenna "I am sure that major reductions in domestic consumption would be achieved." And then there is the issue of a transient population, which brings a variation in people's lifestyles and awareness of environmental issues, compounding any effort to get the message across.
McKenna adds: "The same is true for many of the transient professionals behind the construction industry, who may not factor in the unique conditions of the Gulf but instead use the same standards and systems for designs they have done while in Europe, the USA or India."
But there is a flip side to this perspective says Morris who believes that it is the very transient population who are now being attracted to Dubai that is heightening the sense of urgency and in so doing, pushing to the forefront pertinent issues that must be addressed. "There is more and more awareness in the challenges we are facing and I think that the percolation from the West helps, and there are thousands here from overseas who have experienced the strictness and tightness of these regulations. It is a young society and it is this young society coming in which will bring views on this kind of country and I think in the next few years will see a sea change."
An enlightened population is one thing, however, there is real concern that the very real financial implications will continue to dog the growth of environmental practice. Morris says that there is a perception from clients - albeit wrongly - that green technology is something they cannot afford. However, he points out that there will come a time where, as the housing market matures, people will ask ‘green' questions to gauge the financial implications. "People are becoming more discerning and it will come to a point where they will look at their location and ask ‘what does it cost for me to live here?' ‘How much electricity is the building going to use?' ‘Are they using four litre flush toilets or six?' And I think that is what will happen with a mature market, people will start to understand."
McKenna also concedes that challenges exist, but that there are also opportunities, which need to be identified and capitalised upon, pointing to amongst others, the reduction of carbon emissions by switching to cleaner Natural Gas fuels to power the country's desalination and power plants. This could be achieved possibly through the Dolphin Energy Project, which will see Qatar supply natural gas to the UAE and Oman.
Moreover, there is the MASDAR initiative, which was launched in April 2005 by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, set up to develop a 650,000m2 area, which will operate with zero carbon emissions. According to McKenna there will be a major emphasis within this area on alternative energy, clean technology and developing more efficient energy technologies. Among these projects is a 100MW concentrated solar power plant and alternative energy projects such as fuel cells.
And there is a potential legislative approach: "Until recently, there was legislation for sustainable development such as Federal Law (24) of 1999 for the protection and development of the environment. However, there was a lack of emphasis on how the construction industry could play their part through sustainable design of buildings," says McKenna before adding that a suitable framework is in the pipeline.
"We are also trying to come up with a Gulf specific rating system and hopefully the onus will be on these big developers to sign up to this rating system when it comes into effect. This will mean looking at the best practice internationally and adapt it to the local climate," he says.
Possibly the key which will drive this issue forward is for the contractor to take more responsibility for what its building. Currently, the way contracts are set-up, invariably the developer is not the end user and therefore there is little incentive to take on extra costs. Both Morris and McKenna stress that when the developer realises the financial and holistic advantages in pursuing a green building, then a change will occur.
"What is beginning to happen now is developers are marketing their buildings as green basically, so they can up the rent and the increase will cover the potential increase from green technology, which is now proven to be less expensive than originally thought," says Morris. Realisation is beginning to dawn on businesses that a green working environment offers more than just reduced carbon emissions; productivity is believed to increase, absenteeism drops and the cost benefit is estimated to be 30% to 40%. "So the small amount of money at the front end that businesses don't like is paid back," says Morris. "It is difficult for people to see because its intangible," he adds.
It is clear, therefore that Dubai's future growth is intrinsically linked with a greater emphasis and integration of sustainable policies. Developers and contractors it seems, will be faced with a clear choice; join the sustainable movement or be left behind. The choice is a simple one and it remains to be seen just who is brave enough to get on board.
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