The Green Building Movement in UAE and its development
 

The Drive for the GB Initiative
The Green Building Movement is a relatively recent phenomenon which is gaining momentum worldwide. It started in the USA in 1994 by Mr. David Gottfried the founder of the U.S. Green Building Council and was announced at the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) in 1998 at the kick-off of the Japan Green Building Council in Nagoya, Japan. The WorldGBC held its founding meeting in November of 1999 in San Francisco, California USA, with 7 countries in attendance including Green Building councils of U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Mexico and Spain.

The Concept of Green Building
Green Buildings mean incorporating excellent practices that result in environmental protection, energy efficiency, water conservation, usage of renewable energy and clean / recycled products. For example, by using a compact fluorescent lamp instead of an incandescent light bulb we can save 500 pound of pile of coal. According to the U.S. Green Building Council a ‘Green Building’ has six major added values notably: increasing energy performance by 25% or more; decreasing absenteeism by 15% compared to conventional buildings; reducing building-related illness; increasing occupants productivity; improving health condition; and prolonging lifecycle of buildings, said Dr. Aboulnaga, Professor in Architecture and Sustainable Design, and Chairman of the Green Building Core Group.

Why Green Buildings?
The global environmental problems are increasingly threatening water and air quality and the ecosystems which inhabitants depend on in their daily life. The construction industry ought to be transformed from a conventional (wasteful, harmful, and unhealthier) to a Sustainable or High–performance Green Building that produce less pollutants and consequently protects the environment.

So many reasons why we should go green? Everyday, the world uses some 320 billion Kilowatt-hour of energy, an equivalent of 22 bulbs burning nonstop for every person on the planet. Lacking global changes, energy consumption from Fossil fuels has already generated CO2 in 2002 of 2.6 billion tons per year and it is expected to increase in 2030 to 4.2 billion tons per year (source: energy scientist Dan Kammen). Herman Scheer, a member of the German parliament and a genial energy leader says “if you have a big problem, you must give a big answer”. Thus, we have to think big when it comes to the protection of our planet, says Mohsen Aboulnaga.

The drive for the Green Building Initiative in the UAE
Recent statistics published by Ministry of Economy & Commerce showed that Dubai power consumption in 2004 alone was 16,363 Gigawatts-hour of which 70% was utilized in commercial and residential buildings  (Source : Gulf News, June 10, 2005).   Recent statistics

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