Dubai’s TCI rated as world’s most sustainable commercial building
Sheikh Zayed Road based building secures 107 points out of a possible 110 from US Green Building Council
The Change Initiative in Dubai has been rated as the world’s most sustainable commercial building.
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Dubai is now home to the ‘most sustainable commercial building in the world’ – The Change Initiative – on Sheikh Zayed Road, it was announced after it secured the highest LEED Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council.
The Change Initiative is a 4,000sqm shop that provides sustainable solutions in Dubai. It secured 107 points out of a possible 110, making it the most sustainable commercial building in the world. The record was previously held by Pixel, four-level building in Australia, with 105 points.
“Congratulations on setting a new record with your LEED for Commercial Interiors Platinum project. The store is a great prototype for sustainable real estate applicable worldwide,” said Richard Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chairman of the US GBC and chairman of the World GBC, said in his letter to Gundeep Singh, TCI founder and CEO.
The US Green Building Council is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting sustainable buildings worldwide.
A year old venture, TCI not provides environmentally friendly solutions, but also incorporates all aspects of green building on its structure, from roofing to energy efficient lighting to its water system.
TCI has 26 technologies, including solar panels and heat reflective paint, on its roof that provides 40% of the building’s energy requirements. Its outer structure has insulation three times more than that of a normal building.
All its windows have heat reflective films, water in the building is reused and recycled, and most of the materials used for the building’s interiors are recycled.
“I think, not only for us, for the rest of Dubai as a whole, as you see, we have achieved a pinnacle of being sustainable around the world and in a place that is completely paradoxical. Most people believe that Dubai cannot be sustainable or is less sustainable. But we’ve proven that if Dubai can build the tallest, the biggest, then it can also build the most sustainable building,” Singh told Gulf News.
This high LEED Platinum rating is not the first in Dubai, which is also home to the Dewa (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) Sustainable Building, the largest government building in the world with 98 out of 110 points.
