The Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC) has called for submissions for its annual MENA Green Building Awards 2017, which aims to identify and recognise organisations for innovative and outstanding sustainable building practices in the Middle East and North Africa region.
An independent forum aimed at conserving the environment by strengthening and promoting green building practices, EmiratesGBC will be presenting the MENA Green Building Awards 2017 in 15 professional categories. Alongside the awards, the council also organises the Dr. Owainati Student Excellence Award, which rewards a student from a recognised university in the UAE for exceptional research work in a subject related to green buildings in the Middle East.
The awards are supported by the World Green Building Council and organised in partnership with the Jordan Green Building Council and Lebanon Green Building Council, said EmiratesGBC in a statement.
The deadline for submissions is February 16, 2017, midnight (UAE time) and the short-listed applicants will be notified on April 30, the statement added. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner and awards ceremony to be held at the Al Murooj Downtown Hotel, Dubai on May 17. The event will be audited by KPMG to ensure corporate governance and transparency standards are adhered to, EmiratesGBC added.
“The Annual MENA Green Building Awards is the first of its kind initiative in the region to honour exceptional and innovative work in driving sustainable building practices and principles. The support extended by JordanGBC and LebanonGBC, and that of WorldGBC, make the awards truly a regional benchmark for excellence in green building practices,” said Saeed Al Abbar, chairman, EmiratesGBC. “Through the awards, we are not only recognising outstanding work but also inspiring the industry stakeholders to innovate and develop path-breaking practices and solutions that will help the region achieve its goals of sustainable development.
“With several new categories being introduced, the annual awards will also facilitate greater understanding of the contributions from the construction and building sector to sustainable development, and lead to exchange of ideas and good practice in sustainability across the MENA region. We are also reaching out to the student community to honour exceptional research work with the goal of encouraging student innovation in green buildings.”
Among the categories, the Green Building of the Year award has four sub-categories – Commercial, Hotel, School and Residential. Eligible entries will have to be finalised building in the MENA region, completed between 2014 and 2017, whose construction and completion has respected the highest sustainability standards and included innovation in design and processes.
The Sustainable Design of the Year category will deal with the green design of buildings in planning or under construction in the MENA region, whose plans, characteristics and drawings respect the highest sustainability standards and include innovation and creativity. The design must have been finalised in the past 2 years – between 2015 and 2017, said the council’s statement.
The FM Organisation of the Year category will be for an FM organisation that shows excellence in delivering key FM services to its portfolio and gives sustainability and environmental stewardship a place in its activities, the statement added.
The Contractor of the Year category will be decided on the achievements of a MENA-based contracting company that demonstrates the highest standards on project sites and within the company, in compliance with the national and international regulations and codes, while the achievements of a MENA-based developer, whether public, semi-private or private, will be judged under similar parameters for the Developer of the Year award.
Other categories include the Green Building Material/Product award with Energy Management, Indoor Air Quality, Conventional, Construction Materials and Water Management as its sub-categories; the Green Building Research Award; the Retrofit Project of the Year; and the Best Operations & Maintenance award for existing buildings.
Awards in all the categories are open to all organisations operating in the MENA region, including public and private sector enterprises, associations, consultants and practitioners, the statement said and added that the Dr. Owainati Student Excellence Award is open to an academically accepted thesis or research paper submitted for a post-graduate degree or a final year undergraduate university research project report or dissertation in the UAE. The research addressed in the paper should be directly applicable to green building design, technology, construction, operations or related life cycle economics.
All applications must be completed and submitted via online submission through EmiratesGBC website at emiratesgbc.org/awards/2017awards or hand-delivered to the council’s head office in Dubai and must be in the format prescribed on the website.