Innovation and prosperity are helping to shape Dubai into a city of the future. But will its massive consumer appetite leave the oil-rich emirate out of step with current thinking on sustainability and energy efficiency?
Dubai city could have come straight out of a futuristic comic strip. Its soaring skyscrapers, giant shopping centres and awesome property developments rising up from man-made islands provide the kind of backdrop that would make your average superhero feel quite at home. This particular megacity is becoming one of the world’s most luxurious tax havens and a major business hub between east and west.
Dubai’s leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, estimates that over the past six years the emirate’s economy has been growing faster than that of China and India, at an enviable average of 13 per cent per year. The emirate’s phenomenal building boom looks set to continue, with bigger, more outlandish projects in the pipeline. But at what cost?
Dubai’s new developments are visionary. But in reality the city is already in danger of falling out of step with current thinking—particularly on environmental issues. The rush to secure high-earning developments and mega-contracts has left the city with little time to consider what impact the growing population and its massive demand for energy and water is having on the environment. Until recently, the only time sustainability came into business conversations was as a means of securing profit levels.
A survey by the charity WWF at the beginning of this year found that the United Arab Emirates’s (UAE’s) love of chilled swimming pools, monster 4×4 cars and giant over-cooled shopping centres has given it an even larger per-capita ecological footprint than that of the USA. Dubai’s water and electricity demand continues to rise by 12-18 per cent a year and the Arabian peninsula as a whole has one of the highest growth rates of oil consumption in the world.
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Nevertheless, Dubai has been experiencing a gradual green transformation. Although the UAE is still oil-rich, Dubai has very few oil and gas reserves of its own and government leaders are waking up to the economic advantages of developing alternative energy sources. The business community has also gone through a transition as increased investment from foreign companies has introduced a greater demand for international standards.
Property developers in particular, have been under pressure to put their environmental houses in order. A growing number of the larger companies are now adopting international standards such as the US-led Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed), a green building rating certification, and the UK-led ISO14001 standard which sets water, waste and energy management targets.
“The era of people throwing up buildings and making lots of money is over,” says James Garbutt, a specialist in project and facilities management in corporate real estate at the project management consultancy EC Harris International. “Developers are realising they can’t just walk away from a building; they have to maintain it,” he continues. “Introducing energy efficiency keeps service charges down, gives developers a competitive advantage and enhances their reputation.”
The current trend is towards ‘smart buildings’ where IT systems automatically manage energy use. This can include: sensors to reduce air-conditioning when an apartment is empty; lifts programmed to adapt their energy use according to their load; and ultra-sensitive cooling systems which respond to the sun as it hits different parts of the building.
“Some of the buildings going up in Dubai now claim to be the greenest in the world,” says Garbutt.
“We’ll have to wait and see if these claims turn out to be true but I think that, overall, we’re seeing a genuine change in mindset. Sheikh Mohammed has brought sustainability to the top of the agenda and as a result a lot of people are looking at it seriously.”
As interest in energy saving has grown, FM businesses have also started to benefit. The industry is now one of the fastest growing sectors in Dubai and the consultancy, Middle East Strategy Advisors, has estimated that FM in the UAE will be worth an average £690 million per annum over the next 25 years on new projects alone. One of the most encouraging signs is that FMs are now being asked to come on board at the design stage of a project.
“This makes it much easier to introduce really effective energy efficiency rather than tack it on later,” Garbutt says. In the last year, the demand for FM consultancy at the design stage has also rocketed.
From Garbutt’s position, the future is looking good. “The role for FM companies over here is going to be huge,” he says. “We’re already inundated with enquiries.” Most of the older developments in the city can’t be converted to smart buildings but there is still a lot of potential for FMs to improve performance. “Traditionally, all FM was left to security guards and as a result all the systems got very run down,” explains Mick Dalton, the former chairman of the BIFM who now works for Emaar, one of Dubai’s leading property developers.
Some of the most striking examples of more environmentally friendly development can be seen in the newer housing around the edges of Dubai city. The Dallasstyle architecture has more integrity than first meets the eye. The villages in Emaar’s portfolio provide green systems that would put the average British developer to shame. Each Emaar development is a self-contained community with its own shops, schools and leisure facilities, all designed to minimise dependence on the car
Each village is also provided with energy from specially built mini power plants which, although carbon-based, are more efficient because a lot less energy is lost in transmission between the plant and properties. Swimming pools are cooled using waste heat from domestic air-conditioning units while the surrounding gardens and parks are irrigated with household grey water (washing water). As a by-product, communal parks and water features also help to cool the city down. Last year, Emaar went one step further and set up its own recycling system for 25,000 of its villas and apartments with the aim of achieving a 50 per cent reduction in landfill. “Dubai is very much leading the way in terms of sustainable communities and has gone a lot further than the UK in this department,” Dalton says.
Such examples provide a glimpse of a greener future but Dubai still has some way to go before it can claim truly sustainable credentials. Energy Management Services has seen a growing demand for its services. But according to business development manager Joelle Khoury, some developers remain sceptical. “A lot of them really love the idea of the Leed standard while others just see it as a costly exercise,” she says.
Energy intensive
There is also a need for a major overhaul of the city’s infrastructure. Most of the drinking water in the emirate is reclaimed from seawater via energy intensive desalination plants. Usage is still incredibly high — double Europe’s consumption—which has resulted in an overloaded sewerage system and waste water being flushed into the sea. Local reports that the government is considering nuclear energy to power new desalination plants has also caused concern among environmental groups. Although the city is beginning to see solar panels and wind turbines on some of the newest buildings, there is little sign of wider municipal development. “There are still technical problems that need to be solved,” says Dr Sadek Owainati, head of the newly formed Emirates Green Building Council. “Solar energy is a wonderful idea but we have a problem with salt and sand residue on the panels. Water is also a big issue. We need scientists to come up with new ideas that will meet our particular needs.”
With all-year sunshine, it’s astonishing that the emirate is not ploughing money into solar research. One of the biggest barriers to solar development is the simple fact that energy and water bills are still very low in the region. Added to this, many developers are wary of making long-term investments.
“Most people aren’t prepared to wait three or four years to get a return on an investment like solar energy,” says Khoury. “People want a quick turnaround because this is a boom economy and nobody knows how long it’s going to last.”
There has also been serious concern about employment standards. In the past few years construction workers have demonstrated about dangerous working conditions, poor accommodation and unpaid wages. Immigrant labour, mainly from Asia, currently makes up around 95 per cent of the workforce. The government has recently announced new legislation to address some of the main issues however, the proposed new laws fail to cover domestic workers or protect workers’ rights to organise or strike. “Things are improving,” says Garbutt. “Now that international companies are coming in, there’s a growing awareness of corporate social responsibility. If construction companies want to win the work, they have to fall in line with requirements.”
Most of Dubai’s environmental burden is being placed on the business community. But even well-meaning companies are driven by profit not social responsibility. The government needs to co-ordinate investment to upgrade the infrastructure channel funds into sustainable energy research. If Sheikh Mohammed’s promises of a greener future come to fruition, Dubai has the potential to go from one of the world’s worst environmental polluters to a showcase for sustainable living. And, who knows, FMs may well become the city’s green superheroes.
Camilla Berens is a freelance journalist
