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The UAE still has a ways to go with buildings that align with its environmental goals, Bloomberg reported last week, citing Chatham House’s Environment and Society Centre associate Karim Elgendy. While Dubai’s Sustainable City was supposed to start a trend in sustainable construction, “it’s still just an anomaly,” he added. “Sustainable City found an opportunity in a certain type of tenant and they framed it as a lifestyle,” he said. “I don’t think a typical Dubai resident is their typical customer. Without the policy incentives, it’s hard to see other developers doing more.”
Challenges ahead: The emphasis on sustainable architecture is growing, as policymakers and business leaders see it as a key strategy to decrease energy consumption, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, where the rate of warming is double the global average and where nearly 70% of electricity is used for home cooling. However, Sustainable City, seemingly a solitary example of a populated green project, isn’t readily scalable, largely due to restrictions on car use, the report explains. Masdar City also remains noticeably vacant.
